Week 16 - Open Source Movement

Is open source technology good or bad?

Open source is free access to the source code of a program and extensive free redistribution rights for this software, examples of open source is Linux, Apache, PHP and MySQL. Source code is any collection of statements or declarations written in some human-readable computer programming language. Source code is used by programmers to specify the actions to be performed by the computer.

One prominent example of open source technology is Facebook with over 350 million users making it the world’s most popular social networking site. It runs on open source technology such as PHP, Memcached, MySQL and others. Facebook has become the most popular social networking site several English speaking countries which raises the question is opens source technology good?

Linux is a operating system based on open source technology which allows consumers to view the source code and even alter them. However, Microsoft are firmly against allowing consumers to view their source code and even have protected the right to keep it private. CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer describes Linux as being a ‘cancer’. The harsh description of Linux by Steve suggests they are familiarly against open source. Although it could also suggest that Microsoft may feel threatened by Linux as consumers may wish to have more control over the operating systems, which Linux offers. So is open source good or bad? I personally think it gives the consumer more control and freedom which can only be a good thing.