Open Source

Software that is available to other software manufacturers for free to implement into their system. The goal behind open source is efficient evolution of software through available reading, redistributing, and modifying the source code. This way, improvements and fixes can happen much faster than in conventional software development, though the degree to which this actually occurs varies quite a bit from product to product. Open source doesn’t just mean access to the source code. The distribution terms of open source software often complies with additional criteria such as “Free Redistribution”, “No Discrimination from Fields of Endeavor”, “License Must Not Restrict Other Software” and so on.