SOFTWARE

SOFTWARE

FOSS / Proprietary software.

The term open source refers to software whose source code — the medium in which programmers create and modify software — is freely available on the Internet; by contrast, the source code for proprietary commercial software is usually a closely guarded secret.

The most well-known example of open source software is the Linux operating system, but there are open source software products available for every conceivable purpose.

Open source software is distributed under a variety of licensing terms, but almost all have two things in common: the software can be used without paying a license fee, and anyone can modify the software to add capabilities not envisaged by its originators.