What is open source, ?
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When people write computer programs, the code they write is called "source code". Open Source is when programs are developed by anyone openly.\n\nhttp://sourceforge.net/docs/about can give you more information and links to many open source projects where you or anyone can collaborate on a programming project.\n\nOpen Source can also mean that while the programming is done by a closed group, the source is freely available. Some people or individuals require that they know exactly what code isrunning on their computer/s. In this context, sometimes the software is not free, even though you are free to download and compile the source code, some larger projects still require licensing.\n\nRegarding open source operating systems, This is mostly a Linux Vs Windows question.  Yes there is a huge difference.  Benefits of windows: You can go to your local store and purchase a license to use most any type of software you can imagine. Windows has an extremily large user-base, and is easily supported.\n\nLinux, while excellent, is harder to support because there are many 'open source' versions of Linux, while there are core similarities each distribution is essentially configured differently. A benefit for Linux is the massive library of software available at no cost. This is also a disadvantagem since no cost often means no or little support.\n\nIn summary, I love Linux, however the learning curve is definately higher.  Linux is more stable, and better suited to servers and business workstations.
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This is an interesting question with interesting answers.\n\n- You see some people really dont work for money. They are trying to solve a problem that bugs them and they appreciate people who would help them solve it. This can be one motivation for writing open source stuff.\n\n- Another approach to this to take a hard problem (like say an OS), realise that multiple people have done things that together can be collected into a reasonable solution the same, package the same (obviously add some of your own stuff to that) and then give away the solution for free. Per se, this problem is so complicated that irrespective of what you do, the customers will pay you to help maintain and upgrade the solution. This is getting paid for maintaining the service and not the original solution. This motivates companies like Redhat etc.\n\n- Another approach is that sometime an opensource solution helps a huge corporation and they pay you to make the solution. That way they can access the source code, tune their services to your code and together build a formidable software. IBM used this approach to support Linux and make it work with their DB2 etc.\n\n- Also, a lot of open source stuff gets funded in the later stages via public support since too many people find it useful. Apache foundation is an example that comes to mind\n\n- Also some opensource products get sold out to other corporations and that helps them make more money. JBoss being bought out by Redhat is an example of this\n\n- Some opensource stuff can use display of advertisements to get money.\n\nThese are some things I can think from the top of my head. Hope this helps!
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.... nothing, open source all the way man\n\nbut it might be worth a uni student's pr0n and/or beer collection :D\n\n... anyways, seriously... depends on the target market... around £50 for students...... £1000's for some mathematics place lol.\n\nanyways.... yes OPEN SOURCE MAAAAN..... ahem..... mkay....
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Unless it's an open source application, chances are you won't be able to tell and you won't be able to edit it. When you download a program, you get an executable that's been compiled for your operating system. All you can do with that executable is run it. You can't edit the source.
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Nvu is even better than "freeware" - it's open source! Although my personal belief is that it is not ready for widespread use, others who have used it seem to think differently. Check it out:\n\nhttp://www.nvu.com
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open source means you can view and edit the code that created the program. Free software means you don't have to pay anything for it. Linux is open source and windows would never be.
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Depends on your how advanced you are, and how much control are you willing to take, I myself, prefer anything that's opensource so I can mess around right now I am using this one free BSD I found it's pretty fast, and reliable, it doesn't look all that great but who cares.
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Open Office is basically a free version of Microsoft Office, you will love it! \n\nOpenOffice.org is a free and open source office suite, including word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, vector drawing and database components. It is available for many different platforms, including Microsoft Windows, Unix-like systems with the X Window System including GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris and Mac OS X. It is intended to be compatible with, and to be a free alternative to Microsoft Office. It supports the OpenDocument standard for data interchange and can be used at no cost.\n\nOpenOffice.org is based on the codebase of StarOffice, an office suite developed by StarDivision (acquired by Sun Microsystems in August 1999). The source code of the suite was released as an open source project in July 2000 with the aim of breaking the market dominance of Microsoft Office by providing a lower-cost, high-quality, and open alternative. The source code for the application is available under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).\n\nThe project and software are informally referred to as "OpenOffice", but project organizers report that this term is a trademark held by another party, requiring them to adopt "OpenOffice.org" as its formal name,[1] and abbreviated as OOo.
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OpenOffice - the free open-source suite is available at openoffice.org.
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Try http://www.sourceforge.net\n\nEverything there is open source.
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Official site of the open-source browser. Includes product downloads, release notes, features overview, and information about switching from other browsers.
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Yes, of course it is. One of the most important is the GNU project. Software release under the GNU public license are free to use, to modify and to distribute. It started after the appearence of Linux on the market! Many students and then firms created their own distribution package...\nA full list of software that is availbale under this license is available on the site below! :)
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Rails is a full-stack, open-source web framework in Ruby for writing real-world applications with joy and less code than most frameworks spend doing XML sit-ups    Look at the site in the Source.
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nope... the joy of open source... why not ask again and see if you get a different answer.
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Open Source Format see definition at source link below.\n\nLinux OS is an open source operating system (competitor to Windows).
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Koders.com  is the leading search engine for open source code. Our source code optimized search engine provides developers with an easy-to-use interface to search for source code examples and discover new open source projects which can be leveraged in their applications.
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Log onto www.krugle.com. Think of it as "google" for open source. The company is phasing it into release, so they can absorb the load of the users and fine tune it with feedback.\n\nAdd yourself to their list, but it could be weeks before you get access. I've been waiting for several months.\n\nThis may not be a short term answer for you, but it looks like it could be a long term one.