Summary
You might have heard the term “Open Source Software” and wondered what it was. Or you might have come to associate it with free software. Here is a full description of what open source actually means and when it’s a good choice for you.
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You might have heard the term open source software and wondered what it means. Or you might have only heard of it as synonymous with free software. While open source software is almost always free, it means more than just the price tag. Here’s how to decide if open source software is right for you.
For Personal Tech Media, this is Two Minute Tech. I’m Jim Herman.
At the most basic level, open source refers to software where the code to run it is freely available online. Anyone with knowledge of the coding language can browse the code to see what it does or to find bugs.
The users of open source software will often form communities online to help each other solve problems and discuss potential new features. Many open source projects will also allow people to submit code for new features or bug fixes and have it incorporated into an upcoming release.
Not all open source software is of great quality, but there are plenty of good open source projects available. For example, LibreOffice and OpenOffice are both high quality alternatives to the Microsoft Office Suite. And I am currently using Audacity, an open source audio recording program, to record this podcast.
If you’re considering using open source software, do some research on it first. Not all open source software is safe, especially if no one is updating it anymore. Look online for a community about the product and check how often and how recently a new version has been released. If there’s no community and no recent versions, you should probably choose a different option.