Open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's sources. Some consider it as a philosophy, and others consider it as a pragmatic methodology. Before open source became widely adopted, developers and producers used a variety of phrases to describe the concept; the term open source gained popularity with the rise of the Internet and its enabling of diverse production models, communication paths, and interactive communities.The complexity of such communication relates to Brooks' law, and it is also described by Eric S. Raymond, "Brooks predicts that as your number of programmers N rises, work performed scales as N but complexity and vulnerability to bugs rises as N-squared. N-squared tracks the number of communications paths (and potential code interfaces) between developers' code bases." -- "The Revenge of the Hackers". 2000. Subsequently, open source software became the most prominent face of open source.

The open source model can allow for the concurrent use of different agendas and approaches in production, in contrast with more centralized models of development such as those typically used in commercial software companies.Raymond, Eric S. The Cathedral and the Bazaar. ed 3.0. 2000.

History

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Those involved with journalism and open source intelligence used the earliest known practices of open source that focused on accessibility rather than modification of sources. Software developers used to commonly release their code under public domain until they wanted to control how such freely accessible sources are modified and distributed. Developers, like the Free Software Foundation, began to license their work, but they still kept it as free software.

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Linux based OS Ubuntu 9 10
Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:43:11 -0500
Ubuntu 9.10 is the latest iteration of the popular Linux-based operating system from Canonical Ltd. Version 9.10, which is also known as the Karmic Koala, stands out for its built-in encryption support and new Software Center, as well as for the early look at affords organizations waiting for the next Long Term Support version of the distribution, due next Spring. - Video Content....
Mozilla Firefox 3.6 Beta 2 Contains More than 190 Fixes
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:35:50 -0500
Firefox 3.6 Beta 2, the next version of Mozilla's popular Web browser, arrives less than two weeks after the first beta of Firefox 3.6. It contains over 190 fixes to the original beta. Mozilla currently occupies about 25 percent of the browser market, according to a new study, placing it second behind Microsoft's Internet Explorer at 63.26 percent and ahead of Apple's Safari at 4.39 percent. - Mozilla released Firefox 3.6 Beta 2, the latest version of its open-source Web browser, on Nov. 11, a little under two weeks after the release of the first Firefox 3.6 beta. The second beta contains quot;over 190 fixes based on feedback Mozilla obtained from the previous beta, quot; said an orga...
REVIEW: OpenSUSE 11.2 Exposes, Integrates Community-Packaged Software
Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:43:33 -0500
Novell's OpenSUSE 11.2, which is packed with the latest and greatest of what the open-source software world has to offer, sets itself apart from Linux rivals with its focus on power users. This philosophy makes OpenSUSE more discoverable--but also more confusing--than its peers. - Novell's OpenSUSE 11.2, the latest release in a long and popular line of Linux-based operating systems, hit Internet mirrors everywhere this week, packed with the latest and greatest of what the open-source software world has to offer. The distribution, which is targeted primarily at desktop use...
LABS GALLERY: OpenSUSE 11.2 Effectively Integrates New Features, Installation Options Are Confusing
Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:13:44 -0500
Linux distributions are all about combining clusters of open-source components into well-integrated and easy-to-manage operating systems. OpenSUSE, one of the oldest and most popular Linux distributions, is packed with just this sort of integration, including worthwhile enhancements around pulling in community-packaged applications and extending the reach of the system's well-loved suite of administration tools. - ...
Novell, Microsoft Celebrate 3rd Year of Interoperability
Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:26:18 -0500
Microsoft and Novell celebrated the third year of their interoperability agreement at an event taking place at the Society for Information Management, SIMposium09, conference in Seattle on Nov. 9. - Microsoft and Novell celebrated the third year of their interoperability agreement at an event taking place at the Society for Information Management, SIMposium09, conference in Seattle on Nov. 9. Indeed, three years after Microsoft and Novell first signed their groundbreaking interoperability c...
eWEEK at 25: Open Source Has Proven a Remarkably Fertile Platform
Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:35:46 -0500
PC Week's (now eWEEK's) birth year 1984 was a busy one for technology. One platform that began to take shape at that time was focused not on hardware or software but on licensing. Richard Stallman quit his job at MIT to start the GNU project, an effort to produce a clone of the Unix operating system to be distributed under a license that would ensure users' freedom to run, modify and redistribute the software. The open-source model has since driven much innovation in enterprise technology. - Twenty-five years ago, this publication began chronicling the ecosystem that had sprung up around IBM's PC. It was a platform that proved remarkably fertile, owing not only to the quot;business-approved quot; blessing that came with the IBM brand but also to the platform's open architecture. ...

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Open Source Developers at Google: Amit Singh on MacFuse File systems provide one of the most familiar interfaces end users know. Since implementing a traditional file system is extremely complex and difficult, presenting information seamlessly through files and folders has typically been limited to a small set of select programmers--often kernel hackers who develop at the lowest layers of a system. The MacFUSE mechanism breaks this barrier on Mac