Open Source for Beginners Part 2 - Open Source Licenses
I must confess, I'm struggling to write this post. There's so much to say about Open Source, and I'm not sure that I'm saying it in the right order. I guess I'll just bash on and hope for the best!
So... Open Source software is software which is given away freely, and for which the source code is freely available.
But what is to stop someone taking this source code, packaging it up as a new application and selling it as a closed source program? Sometimes nothing, but usually it's the license!
Some Open Source programs are given away with no license at all, but most are copyrighted and distributed under the some form of Open Source license.
There are dozens of such licenses. The most popular and famous is the GPL. The preamble offers a beautifully succinct description of the purpose of the GPL - take 2 minutes to read it (bearing in mind that the document uses the word "free" as in "liberty" rather than as in "no cost").
One aspec…
So... Open Source software is software which is given away freely, and for which the source code is freely available.
But what is to stop someone taking this source code, packaging it up as a new application and selling it as a closed source program? Sometimes nothing, but usually it's the license!
Some Open Source programs are given away with no license at all, but most are copyrighted and distributed under the some form of Open Source license.
There are dozens of such licenses. The most popular and famous is the GPL. The preamble offers a beautifully succinct description of the purpose of the GPL - take 2 minutes to read it (bearing in mind that the document uses the word "free" as in "liberty" rather than as in "no cost").
One aspec…