{"id":16300,"date":"2023-12-14T01:50:22","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T01:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/lida103\/?page_id=16300"},"modified":"2023-12-14T01:50:22","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T01:50:22","slug":"free-and-open-source-software","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/lida103\/learning-pathways\/dimensions-of-openness\/free-and-open-source-software\/","title":{"rendered":"Free and open source software"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Opensource<\/a><\/div>\n

The free and open source software (FOSS) movement is founded on the democratic principles of freedom of speech, in particular respecting individual choices in the use of software.<\/p>\n

FOSS is widely used in today’s digital world. For instance, the majority of web sites (86%[1]<\/a><\/sup>) are powered by open source web server software (Apache and Nginx). You may not realise that the Android operating system, with a market share of 88% (2015) on mobile devices is based on the Linux, open source operating system.
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Definitions<\/h2>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t
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Free and open source software (FOSS)\n<\/dt>\n
FOSS is computer software which is licensed to use, copy and distribute freely. A key feature of FOSS is that the source code is openly shared for individuals to improve the software.\n<\/dd>\n
Open file formats\n<\/dt>\n
Open format<\/a> (or free file format) is a file format for storing digital data, defined by a published specification usually maintained by a standards organization, and which can be used and implemented by anyone. For example, an open format can be implemented by both proprietary and FOSS. (For example: PNG<\/a> image format, HTML<\/a> markup language used for creating webpages.)\n<\/dd>\n
Open standards\n<\/dt>\n
An open standard<\/a> is a standard that is publicly available and usually has various rights to use associated with it. Sometimes open standards are adopted by international standards bodies like the International Organisation for Standardization<\/a> (ISO.) Consequently, a standard may be proprietary but when published openly without encumbrances, open source software developers can provide support for these standards. (For example: PDF<\/a>, JPEG<\/a> image format and Open Document Format<\/a> (ODF).)\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

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Purpose<\/span><\/h2>\n

It is important to be familiar with FOSS because of the following reasons:\n<\/p>\n