Open source technology is an often-misused term; too
often, users often think open source is synonymous with free. With the
relatively recent rise of the Internet’s influence on production and
development of software, open source has become a popular vehicle to obtain
widespread use and support of some very popular software titles. It has
relationship with software such as the Linux operating system. Open
source technology is defined as the production and development philosophy of
allowing end users and developers to not only see the source code of software,
but modify it as well. The Linux operating system is a one of the best-known
examples of open source software technology. The Linux operating system’s open source paradigm is in
direct contrast to Microsoft’s approach to development and production of its
popular Windows operating system. Unlike Linux, Windows is built on a closed
source paradigm that does not allow the end user the ability to see or edit the
code that makes up the operating system. In fact, certain aspects of the end-user license for the Windows operating system specifically forbids the end user from attempting to
view or modify the code that makes up the software. Such attempts are often
known as reverse engineering or reverse compiling.
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