This document provides an introduction to open source software. It discusses the history of open source beginning with software sharing at MIT in the 1970s. It describes Richard Stallman founding the Free Software Movement in response to proprietary software taking over. The Open Source movement began in the late 1990s. Today, open source software is widely adopted due to benefits like community support, transparency, reliability, and lower costs compared to proprietary software.

1. THEME: GROWING WITH OPEN SOURCE
CONTENT:
WHAT IS OPEN SOURCE HISTORY OF OPEN SOURCE BENEFITS OF OPEN SOURCE
TOPIC: INTRODUCTION TO OPEN SOURCE
OBIMMA UCHECHUKWU PHILEMON
Email: Philshisquare@gmail.com
O: open
S: source
C: community
A: africa

2. ABOUT ME
OBIMMA UCHECHUKWU
@Philshisquare@gmail.com
• VB.NET
• Visual C#
• Python
• R
A generalist with holy curiosity

3. WHAT IS OPEN SOURCE
Open source is more than just chucking some code up on GitHub. Learn what it is—and what it's not
WHAT OPEN SOURCE IS:
At the simplest level, open source programming is merely writing code
that other people can freely use and modify. But you've heard the old
chestnut about playing Go, right? "So simple it only takes a minute to
learn the rules, but so complex it requires a lifetime to master." Writing
open source code is a pretty similar experience. It's easy to chuck a few
lines of code up on GitHub, Bitbucket, SourceForge, or your own blog or
site. But doing it right requires some personal investment, effort, and
forethought.

4. WHAT OPEN SOURCE IS NOT:
Let's be clear up front about something: Just being on
GitHub in a public repo does not make your code open
source. Copyright in nearly all countries attaches
automatically when a work is fixed in a medium, without
need for any action by the author. For any code that has not
been licensed by the author, it is only the author who can
exercise the rights associated with copyright ownership.
Unlicensed code—no matter how publicly accessible—is a
ticking time bomb for anyone who is unwise enough to use
it.

5. OPEN SOURCE IN WORLD VIEW
The term "open source" refers to something people can modify
and share because its design is publicly accessible.
THIS MEAN THAT:
SCIENCE
ARTS
INVENTIONS
ANY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
CAN BE OPEN SOURCE

6. HISTORY OF OPEN SOURCE
Collaboration was king in the software world when Richard Stallman joined MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab in
1971 as a freshman at Harvard University.
Just as ‘sharing recipes is as old as cooking’, software
development at the lab was a communal effort amongst
colleagues. Stallman fit like a glove with the hacker ethos
of the lab, and worked on TECO, early Emacs, and the
Lisp machine operating system (among other things)
during the 1970s.
Unfortunately, good times at the AI Lab wouldn’t last
forever. In the late 70’s and early 80’s, manufacturers
increasingly copyrighted their technologies, withheld
source code, and required licensed use of
software. Proprietary software took over market share in
the world of technology.
By the early 80’s, the MIT AI Lab would shut down. NDA’s
had become commonplace, collaboration dwindled, and
the lab lost many talented developers to private
companies running proprietary software.
Richard Stallman was not pleased.

7. Free Software Movement
Stallman started the GNU Project starting in 1984. The GNU Project
would create a free operating system (“free speech, not free beer”).
Stallman believed this was the key stepping stone to building a free
software community.
In 1985, the Free Software Foundation was formed to house funding for the GNU
Project. To this day, it holds the four following rules to define whether a program
is free software.
The GNU Project eventually combined with Linux in the early 1990s. The free
operating system Stallman envisioned, nearly a decade prior, was finally created
from the (non-trivial) combination of the two projects. Linux (or “GNU/Linux”, as
free software maximalists say) now has the largest installed base of all general-
purpose operating systems. More on Linux later in this series in Part III, OSS Giants
& Their Impact.

8. The Open Source Movement
In 1997, Eric Raymond, a free software advocate, penned The Cathedral and The Bazaar, comparing the
development styles of the GNU Project and the Linux Project, before they were combined. The two models:
•The Cathedral (GNU Emacs): Source code is made by a small group of developers, distributed freely with
each software release.
•The Bazaar (Linux kernel): Source code is developed over the Internet, in public.
In 1998, not long after Eric Raymond penned his essay, Netscape decided to open source the code for
Netscape Communicator, heavily influenced by the bazaar approach.
Five years later, the open sourcing of this code had resulted in another browser — completely open source
and free: Mozilla Firefox. Firefox went on to be one of the most popular browsers of the 2000s.
The Open Source movement takes off 🚀
Fueled by the early success of Netscape’s experiment, Eric Raymond founded the Open Source Initiative
(OSI) to grow the open source community.

9. Proprietary Software vs. Open Source Software
In the early years, the battle between proprietary
software and open source software was contentious.
Bigger technology players, like Oracle and Microsoft,
viewed the Open Source alternatives as threats to
their stranglehold on their respective markets (indeed,
they were). Open source alternatives to proprietary
software cropped up in all aspects of software.

10. Proprietary Software vs. Open Source Software

11. Throughout the years, many debates ensued on the pros and
cons of the two development approaches. Though costs are
much lower for open-source software, prompt service is not
guaranteed. Open source software can be more disorganized
compared to crisp documentation for proprietary software.
Innovation is better served in the public eye of open-source.
Though these debates continue today, a simple fact became
clear over time: open-source softwares are firmly seated at the
table next to their proprietary counterparts.
Proprietary Software vs. Open Source Software

12. Open Source Today
Over the past 20 years, the open-source movement has navigated the path
from outsider to mainstay. The OSS community is vibrant and active,
worldwide. A 2010 survey showed that 98% of enterprises use open-source
software.
As this story shows, the open source community stands on the shoulders of the Free
Software Movement which preceded. At Gitcoin, we are proud to continue the efforts
of both movements in attempts to build a more open, free society through code.
Recommended Further Reading / Citations
Digital Ocean: Free Software vs. Open Source Software
Wikipedia: The Cathedral and The Bazaar
Free Software Foundation: About The GNU Operating System
Open Source Software vs. Proprietary Software

13. BENEFITS OF OPEN SOURCE
Community. Open source solutions geared toward the enterprise often have thriving communities around
them, bound by a common drive to support and improve a solution that both the enterprise and the
community benefit from (and believe in). The global communities united around improving these solutions
introduce new concepts and capabilities faster, better, and more effectively than internal teams working on
proprietary solutions.
The power of the crowd. Many hands can deliver powerful outcomes. The collective power of a community
of talented individuals working in concert delivers not only more ideas, but quicker development and
troubleshooting when issues arise.
Transparency. Open source code means just that—you get full visibility into the code base, as well as all
discussions about how the community develops features and addresses bugs. In contrast, proprietary code
produced in secrecy may come with unforeseen limitations and other unwelcome surprises. With open
source, you're protected against lock-in risks and can see exactly what you're getting.
Reliability. Because there are more eyes on it, the reliability of open source code tends to be superior as
well. With a worldwide community supporting a code base—rather than one team within one company—
code is developed on online forums and guided by experts. The output tends to be extremely robust, tried,
and tested code. In fact, open source code now powers about 90% of the internet and is being rapidly
adopted across major enterprises for this reason.

14. BENEFITS OF OPEN SOURCE
Better security. As with reliability, open source software's code is often more secure because it is much more
thoroughly reviewed and vetted by the community (and any issues that do arise tend to be patched more
diligently). Long a point of hesitation for enterprise adoption of open source, concerns about security just aren't
an issue today.
Merit-based. With open source code, the sole motivation behind decision making around the direction of a
solution is to make the best, most useful product possible. Corporations making proprietary code usually put the
bottom line foremost, which is not always ideal. When choosing a technology integral to your business, it's best
to ensure its agenda supports your own interests.
Faster time to market. Because open source solutions are openly available and can be explored for free, it's
often much faster to investigate options and get solutions off the ground.
Cost effective. Although open source solutions should be thought of as more than just free software, the fact
that they require no licensing fees remains a decisive advantage when looking at the total cost of deploying a
solution.
Freedom from lock-in. Proprietary software for core infrastructure increases the risk of becoming locked in by
the vendor or technology. If this happens, enterprises can be at the mercy of vendors' price increases and
experience a lack of flexibility they can't easily and readily escape. Enterprises should be careful to use true
open source solutions, rather than those from providers that repackage open source software to include
proprietary hooks.

15. Becoming the norm. The many large enterprises implementing open source solutions—and often
making policies out of doing so—are bringing the strength of their resources to the communities that
support open source solutions.
In addition to these advantages, open source software has the long-term viability to
outlast proprietary developers that come and go. And, thanks to supportive communities that are
energized to continually introduce innovations, open source software remains at the forefront of
advancing technology as a whole and meeting enterprises' needs as they evolve going forward.
BENEFITS OF OPEN SOURCE

16. THANK YOU