OpenManiak.com - The OPEN SOURCE concept

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The meaning of the "open source" concept is not very clear from the public view. Here, we will limit ourselves to giving basic explanations. Please check the Open Source Initiative (OSI) website for more information.
The basic Open Source concept means that the source code is available for download with the software. (The source code is the code available before being processed by a compilator) Every open source software is attributed an open source license, giving restrictions or authorizations on what can be done with the software. For example, the license could indicate the conditions under which people are allowed to transmit the open source software.
logo open source There are more than fifty open source licenses which can be found on the OSI Website. The most known licences are the GPL and BSD open source licenses.
The most impressive example of an open source software is the famous apache web server which holds more than sixty-five percent of the webserver market way ahead of the IIS Microsoft web server and its thirty percent share.

It is important to stress that an open source software does not mean a free software. With the open source concept, the source code has to be given with the software but it can have a cost. It means that it is permitted to sell open source softwares, a good example being Red Hat Linux.
When we speak of free softwares, the free word can be ambiguous because it can have two meanings: it can be understood as free for gratis or as free for freedom, meaning that you can do whatever you want with the tool.
By chance, a very large number of open source softwares do not cost anything. In our tutorials, we will present you gratis open source softwares.

On the gnu.org website, you can find a very interesting glossary of various categories of software and a list of ambiguous words.