Open Source (Week 12)

Open source software is software with a source code that is open to be manipulated or modified.  Open source software is usually free and comes without restrictions on downloading or advertising as well.  Open source software can be the combination of many developers' code.  Websites like sourceforge.com allow for software developers to publish their source codes onto the internet and allow for other developers to see the code and tweak or change the code.  Open source software ranges in its uses.  from web browsing with firefox, checking mail with thunderbird, word processing with open office, or even photo editing with gimp.  Open source software is definitely an original creation of the internet generation.  Much like the internet itself, open source is a collaborative effort.  There are no disks or dvds to download and also, much like everything else on the internet, the content is free. Open source programmers have figured out ways around many costly software packages provided by major companies. 

Open source software is very important in my major and field.  The film industry is growing daily and tools are becoming cheaper and more accessible.  Avidemux for windows allows for pretty much anyone with any computer to edit video non-linearly.  This means that what becomes most important for film makers isn't the technology used, but rather the quality of the story and technique.  This also means that kids can start messing around with relatively advanced programs much earlier.  I used to have to hook up two VCRs together and edit tape to tape when I was really young, now kids can start utilizing computer programs early on which gives them a head start.  Having cheaper alternatives provided through open source software also forces major companies to bring their prices down in order to compete.  The same AVID system that was worth thousands upon thousands of dollars just a few years ago has come down in price drastically.  This can allow for film makers to put more of a films budget into other aspects of the picture.

LINK: http://open-source.gbdirect.co.uk/migration/benefit.html

The article I found starts out by describing open source software as being much more focused on quality over software features.  Where commercial software attempts to load a program with features that make the product more marketable and easier to sell, open source software doesn't have to worry about marketing and focuses more on stability within the program.  The people who make open source software regard peer recognition as very important.  They seek to impress their peers with clean design, reliability and maintainability.  This trickles down to the normal program user who gets a very efficiently designed program with a lot of reliability.  The article also describes that a relatively unknown benefit of open source software is auditability.  This is the idea that where a consumer has to trust a commercial company that says their program is safe and secure, open source software isn't hidden.  Anyone can physically look at the source code and determine if the claims made are indeed true.