About Open Source


The basic idea behind open source is very simple: When programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software evolves: People improve it, people adapt it, people fix bugs. And this can happen at a speed that, if you are used to the slow pace of conventional software development, seems astonishing. Open source is an often-misunderstood term that relates to free software. The Open Source Initiative (OSI) website provides a number of resources that define the various aspects of open source, including a definition of open source at www.opensource.org/docs/definition.html. The following quote from the OSI home page nicely summarizes the key aspects as they relate to JBoss:

We in the open source community have learned that this rapid evolutionary process produces better software than the traditional closed model, in which only a very few programmers can see the source and everybody else must blindly use an opaque block of bits.

Open Source Initiative exists to make this case to the commercial world.

Open source software is an idea whose time has finally come. For twenty years it has been building momentum in the technical cultures that built the Internet and the World Wide Web. Now it's breaking out into the commercial world, and that's changing all the rules. Are you ready?

The Open Source Initiative



JBoss 4. 0(c) The Official Guide
JBoss 4.0 - The Official Guide
ISBN: B003D7JU58
EAN: N/A
Year: 2006
Pages: 137

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