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Open Source: Software Freedom |
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Although the term "open source" was not made official until the "Freeware Summit" of 1998 (later called the Open Source Summit), the collaborative efforts of programmers to develop software equal, and even functionally superior, to commercial software has been evolving since the '60s. By harnessing the cumulative efforts of innovative programmers, development communities are able to quickly add new functionality, correct bugs and defects, offer collective support, lower costs and develop upgrades faster than closed-source commercial software. By the late '80s, developers had begun to realize the benefits of offering open-source software (OSS) to everyone, a phenomenon that resulted in the first open-source software license in 1989. Nearly 20 years after that trademark event, open source is finally becoming mainstream.
Article includes a four-part series: Open Source Defined, The Benefits, Concerns and Myths Debunked, and The Proof.
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