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The basic idea behind open
source is very simple: When programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software
evolves. People improve it, people adapt it, people fix bugs. And this can happen at a speed that, if one is used to the slow
pace of conventional software development, seems astonishing.
We in the open source community have learned that
this rapid evolutionary process produces better software than the traditional closed model, in which only a very few programmers
can see the source and everybody else must blindly use an opaque block of bits.
Open Source Initiative exists to
make this case to the commercial world.
Open source software is an idea whose time has finally come. For twenty
years it has been building momentum in the technical cultures that built the Internet and the World Wide Web. Now it's breaking
out into the commercial world, and that's changing all the rules. Are you ready?
This site is still evolving as
we think through the implications of open source in the commercial world. mail us at hasib.sk@gmail.com with your thoughts and criticisms. Also, please send us URLs of articles and papers
on commercial trials of the open source model, on open source software including such packages as Linux, and related topics.
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