Having worked in a software company for the past five years, now I am able to appreciate the spirit of open source. When I mean open source, I don’t necessarily mean free software. Open Source is much more than free software. Free does not carry any meaning in terms of monetary benefits (though Open Source provides profitability). Free implies to the freedom of using it, modifying it and of course helping others by redistributing it. Though these are somehow enforced through open source licenses, there is one thing that is not enforced but followed by heart by the community. By community, I mean all the developers and users of any open source Software.
If you are in a computer geek or a software engineer, you might be used at least one OSS. More and more vendors are moving towards open source to capture their market or to make their products better. When they come in, they advertise that they are for open source. But once they become stable, they try to stand on top of the spirit of open source. Yes, they see open source legally. In short run, they may gain popularity but that is mirage and they are quite satisfied with the mirage as it bears more fruits than they expected.
But there many people who are totally vendors unbiased and develop open source with noble thoughts. These people understand, respect and nurture open source. They propagate and advocate open source. They release so many versions of their software under open source licenses. The most popular operating system, Linux, is one of the best examples.
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