Linux Online - The open source revolution

The open source revolution


Publication:	ZDNet Australia	Date:	Feb 17 2004

The concept that software can evolve by being developed, distributed to the community, improved and redistributed in a seemingly endless cycle is difficult for most commercially minded people to understand--let alone an organisation.

After all, we are all used to software being created, maintained and owned by an entity. Buying software means that the software is in a "final form" and we expect the owner to legally protect their software (source code). We patiently wait for updates and the software improves over time.

Yet while we have been doing this, the open software movement has been growing in the background, much like the Internet did in its early days. Software developed by this "new approach" circulates around the community and evolves at a pace incomprehensible to a traditional software development house. People in the community actually fix bugs, take the software to new levels and redistribute new versions.