Open Source Media

There are open source forms of media and closed source forms of media. Open source has been growing more and more rapidly in the past decade as most forms of media we have discussed in class on Friday mornings. With an open source form of media software, programmers share their codes freely in order to be modified and used by others. They are allowed to alter and change software with improved features. For open source programs to be reliable, licensing has to be approved by Open Source Initiative, which is a corporation that certifies shares and promotes open source software.

Open Source began with the Hacker’s society of the United States computer science lab in Stanford MIT in the late 1960’s. It was a collective were members shared their code with other members. This would allow members to use each other’s knowledge to improve their own interest.

In the 1980’s the Hackers Society began to fall apart after the members were hired by commercial companies to produce systems that required users to purchase a license in order to use them. Later they left those commercial companies and recreated the hackers’ society. One of the first open source systems was a Unix compatible operating system named GNU by Richard Stallman.

Open source is similar to “free software”, but the open-source users are generally able to view and modify the source code, and they are also allowed to redistribute the software. Open Source does not just mean to access the source code; the distribution of open-source software must comply with certain criteria. The License cannot restrict any party from selling or giving away the software. The program must include the source code as well as compiled form. The license must allow modifications. The license must explicitly allow distribution of software built from modified sources code, but may require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original software. The License must not discriminate against any person or group. The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor such as business or genetic research. The rights attached to the program must apply to all whom the program is redistributed, without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties. License must not be specific to a product. License must not restrict other software. License must be technology-neutral.

Closed source programs usually have many flaws, while research shows that most commercial software is poorly engineered. With closed source programs they are able to hide security flaws and fundamental flaws. With open source more people are able to see code and users can recognize an error before it leads to a major problem. Since many developers are themselves users of the software, they will probably do their best on producing higher quality software. Smaller businesses and students are able to afford the free open source software. Closed source commercial media software are able to make more money. Open source means that you can sell your product but you cannot prevent others from selling your product. Open-source software update flaws much faster than closed source media.

Open source software are improving more and more they are becoming more powerful and popular with time.