Open source software is a software with source code that anyone can examine, make changes accordingly and add some improvements. The term open source refers to computer program which people can modify and share because it can be accessed publicly. However today "open source" defines a broader set of values. Open source products or projects supports transparency, increase productivity, cooperative participation among developers and easy exchange of ideas resulting in community centered development. So, the question arises, how do we technically differentiate between open source software and other types of software.
For any software programming codes are written by a team or company, and maintains exclusive control over it, can modify it according to their requirements. This type of software is called proprietary. Only the developers of proprietary software can change the functionality of this software. Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop falls under this category.
In the case of open source software, developers can share their codes to others for using it, alteration or learning purpose. LibreOffice and the GNU Image Manipulation Program are examples of open source software.
As in the case of proprietary software, user should accept the terms of a license of any open source software. The terms of using any open source software is very different from those of proprietary software.
Now an important question arises. Does using an open source software is free of charge?
NO!!! This is a misunderstanding about the word "open source" implies. Open source software developers charges money for the programs they develop. In some cases, they use that money for services and support they offer while user is using that software.
Open source software is more preferable than proprietary software for a number of reasons, such as:
1. Open source software licenses encourages collaboration because they allow other users to make modifications in the source code and incorporate those changes into their own projects.
2. The user can actually examine the code to check the functionality of program and can change it according to their requirement.
3. Since open source software is publicly accessible, it helps a user to become better programmers.
4. Many developers, researchers, academicians and learners’ forms communities and groups, to work together and develop any application.
5. Many users rely on open source software for long term projects as they are sure that their tools wont retire even if their creator stops working on them or providing support.
Now another question arises. Is open source software only related to software developers?
Not at all!! Open source technology benefits developers and any ordinary user too. Many people rely on internet for various tasks such as processing of any PDF or Word document, editing any image. The user does not install any software for these tasks, instead they simply access a website or mobile phone application. For storing or editing documents or images, we can use Google Applications which are proprietary. Nextcloud and ownCloud are open source. With Nextcloud, User has a choice of having the server at a data center or with a service provider. It is free, open source and user can make changes in it.
For students in engineering, physical sciences, economics involving heavy numeric component, MATLAB is their first introduction to programming or scientific computing in general. But MATLAB is a proprietary tool. It is also prohibitively expensive for many people as even a student version can reach into the thousands of rupees. Fortunately, there are open source alternatives available whose performance is at par with MATLAB. Scilab is an option for computation of large numerical algorithms, also it works as a simulating tool. It is platform independent as it can easily run across all major platforms such as Windows, Mac, and Linux. Using Scilab is very similar to MATLAB in its performance as well as implementation part. For scientific computation with Python, NumPy is a library available that can process n-dimensional arrays, complex matrix transforms, linear algebra.
For engineering drawing students, most of the institutes uses AutoCAD. It is a technology used to design real world objects such as car, buildings, aircrafts or spaceship. SALOME platform is used for industrial design and simulating those designs. LibreCAD can also be an alternative for engineering drawings. It’s user interface is similar to AutoCAD and can work across Windows, Mac, and Linux.
For many years, Adobe Acrobat was the only name that comes into our mind for working with or creating PDF documents. But today, there are many open source PDF applications which are available for editing any PDF document. Even both Firefox and Chrome browser, have their in-browser PDF readers, so user do not have to add any external plugin. For creating PDFs, we can use LibreOffice's export function. LaTeX is probably the most popular choice which generates a PDF through plain text by writing few commands.
