What is Open Source?
Open Source
The open source method is the development of product designs without intellectual property restrictions, or at least with very light restrictions. Individuals, companies and universities may contribute to the design without expectation of direct compensation for the work based on intellectual property royalties. When successful, open source projects have been known to attract the efforts and collaboration of a community of many people, sometimes in the thousands.
Why Open Source?
There are typically two motivations. The first is abstract. This might
include the improvement of one’s own skills through practice and
group efforts, a belief in the necessity of a project, or the education
of students. The second is profit. In this case, participants work on
an open source product to make it more suitable for their own needs. For
example, IBM contributes about $250 million per year for the development
of Linux, which IBM does not sell. IBM does, however, sell servers and
supercomputers that run Linux. They also sell business services that depend
on Linux.
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