A Guide To Open Source Software
Security Boulevard, Thursday, July 25th, 2024
Open source software (OSS) is software for which the original authors have granted express copyright and usage permissions to allow all users to access, view, and modify the source code of these programs however they see fit and without the need to pay royalties.
This is in contrast to proprietary, closed source software, which typically requires a paid license and cannot be added to, modified, or distributed by anyone except the owner of the rights to the software.
The cost efficiency of using open source software has proven to be irresistible. Today, open source components often account for 80% or more of the code base of new applications. Virtually zero products are free from OSS somewhere along the supply chain.