Open Source

"In the beginning there was the command line..."
--Niel Severson

So what does it mean when someone says that a piece of software is open source?

The first thing that often comes to mind is that it's FREE. FREE as in speech. But also free as in pizza.

Open source means that you can download a tool without paying any money, but perhaps more importantly, open source means that the code that runs the tool is available for users to take and modify.

The general practice is that when an open source software is modified, the modified version stays open source. This is a kind of pay-it-forward practice.

As a result, people have made an enormous variety of tools to do all kinds of jobs. If you visit this link you will see all kinds of software for specialized jobs.

Here's an important point:

The way an open source system gets developed and released depends a lot on the culture of people who created it, their vocabulary, and their aesthetic sense.

If those people are "nerds" and what they are making is directed at other people like themselves, it can start to get a little intimidating for us novices... In addition, with open source software, you can't call tech support. If you run into an issue, you have to do some research and look for someone who's had the same issue and has written about it.

From a theoretical vantagepoint, I think this is a pretty interesting site for exploring notions of authorship, ownership, and collaboration.

Plus, we are practicing with open source software all time...

Did you know that Firefox or Audacity are open source tools? How many of your students use The Open Office Suite (almost identical of MS Office)? How about the GIMP (a photoshop work alike, stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program)?

If you are interested in open source check out these links:
Open Source Dreamweaver
Source Forge
Free Software Foundation

And check out our post on an open source blogging tool called WordPress.