What is free and open source software provide an example?

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    Free Software: “Free software” means software that respects users’ freedom and community. Roughly, it means that the users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. The term “free software” is sometimes misunderstood—it has nothing to do with price. It is about freedom. 

    Open Source Software: Open Source Software is something that you can modify as per your needs, and share with others without any licensing violation burden. When we say Open Source, the source code of the software is available publicly with Open Source licenses like GNU (GPL) which allows you to edit the source code and distribute it. Read these licenses and you will realize that these licenses are created to help us.

    1. Coined by the development environments around software produced by open collaboration of software developers on the internet.
    2. Later specified by the Open Source Initiative (OSI).
    3. It does not explicitly state ethical values, besides those directly associated with software development.

    Difference between Free Software and Open Source Software:

    S.No.FS PhilosophyOSS Philosophy
    1.It was coined by the Free Software Foundation in the 1980s. In response to the restrictions of free software, the phrase “open source” was coined in the late 1990s.
    2.Software is an important part of people’s lives. Software is just software. There are no ethics associated directly with it.
    3.Software freedom translates to social freedom. Ethics are to be associated with the people not with the software.
    4.Freedom is a value that is more important than any economical advantage. Freedom is not an absolute concept. Freedom should be allowed, not imposed.
    5.Every free software is open source. Every open-source software is not free software.
    6.There is no such issue that exists in free software. There are many different open-source software licenses, and some of them are quite restricted, resulting in open-source software that is not free.
    7.No restrictions are imposed on free software. Open-source software occasionally imposes some constraints on users.
    8.Examples: The Free Software Directory maintains a large database of free software packages. Some of the best-known examples include the Linux kernel, the BSD and Linux operating systems, the GNU Compiler Collection and C library; the MySQL relational database; the Apache web server; and the Sendmail mail transport agent. Examples: Prime examples of open-source products are the Apache HTTP Server, the e-commerce platform Open Source Commerce, internet browsers Mozilla Firefox, and Chromium (the project where the vast majority of development of the freeware Google Chrome is done), and the full office suite LibreOffice.

    Learning Objectives

    After studying this section you should be able to do the following:

    1. Recognize that just about every type of commercial product has an open source equivalent.
    2. Be able to list commercial products and their open source competitors.

    Just about every type of commercial product has an open source equivalent. SourceForge.net lists over two hundred and thirty thousand such products1! Many of these products come with the installation tools, support utilities, and full documentation that make them difficult to distinguish from traditional commercial efforts (Woods, 2008). In addition to the LAMP products, some major examples include the following:

    • Firefox—a Web browser that competes with Internet Explorer
    • OpenOffice—a competitor to Microsoft Office
    • Gimp—a graphic tool with features found in Photoshop
    • Alfresco—collaboration software that competes with Microsoft Sharepoint and EMC’s Documentum
    • Marketcetera—an enterprise trading platform for hedge fund managers that competes with FlexTrade and Portware
    • Zimbra—open source e-mail software that competes with Outlook server
    • MySQL, Ingres, and EnterpriseDB—open source database software packages that each go head-to-head with commercial products from Oracle, Microsoft, Sybase, and IBM
    • SugarCRM—customer relationship management software that competes with Salesforce.com and Siebel
    • Asterix—an open source implementation for running a PBX corporate telephony system that competes with offerings from Nortel and Cisco, among others
    • Free BSD and Sun’s OpenSolaris—open source versions of the Unix operating system

    Key Takeaways

    • There are thousands of open source products available, covering nearly every software category. Many have a sophistication that rivals commercial software products.
    • Not all open source products are contenders. Less popular open source products are not likely to attract the community of users and contributors necessary to help these products improve over time (again we see network effects are a key to success—this time in determining the quality of an OSS effort).
    • Just about every type of commercial product has an open source equivalent.

    Questions and Exercises

    1. Visit http://www.SourceForge.net. Make a brief list of commercial product categories that an individual or enterprise might use. Are there open source alternatives for these categories? Are well-known firms leveraging these OSS offerings? Which commercial firms do they compete with?
    2. Are the OSS efforts you identified above provided by commercial firms, nonprofit organizations, or private individuals? Does this make a difference in your willingness to adopt a particular product? Why or why not? What other factors influence your adoption decision?
    3. Download a popular, end-user version of an OSS tool that competes with a desktop application that you own, or that you’ve used (hint: choose something that’s a smaller file or easy to install). What do you think of the OSS offering compared to the commercial product? Will you continue to use the OSS product? Why or why not?

    1See http://sourceforge.net.

    References

    Woods, D., “The Commercial Bear Hug of Open Source,” Forbes, August 18, 2008.

    What is open source software and free software with examples?

    Widely used open-source software Prime examples of open-source products are the Apache HTTP Server, the e-commerce platform osCommerce, internet browsers Mozilla Firefox and Chromium (the project where the vast majority of development of the freeware Google Chrome is done) and the full office suite LibreOffice.

    What is free source software examples?

    Some of the best-known examples include the Linux kernel, the BSD and Linux operating systems, the GNU Compiler Collection and C library; the MySQL relational database; the Apache web server; and the Sendmail mail transport agent.

    What is open source software explain with example?

    Open source software is code that is designed to be publicly accessible—anyone can see, modify, and distribute the code as they see fit. Open source software is developed in a decentralized and collaborative way, relying on peer review and community production.

    Which is free and open software?

    What Does Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) Mean? Free and open-source software (FOSS) allows users and programmers to edit, modify or reuse the software's source code. This gives developers the opportunity to improve program functionality by modifying it.