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Open Source Software And Oscommerce
By Myles O Reilly
Open Source and its Relation to osCommerce
E-commerce sites such as osCommerce function through the use and continued success of open source – in fact, open source is what makes these sites free. So what exactly is open source software? The purpose of article is to help you better understand what open source is.
Basically, open source is based on the idea that when people have access to a software’s source code they can change, improve and evolve a piece of at astonishing speeds – a characteristic that ends up produces really great that meets the needs of its users.
Open source is not just free code for website and software. Open source is “governed” by the Open Source Initiative. According to the website for the Open Source Initiative it must meet several criteria to actually qualify as open source:
First of all open source must not restrict anyone from selling (or giving away) the software. In other words, it cannot require a royalty or fee. For a product to be open source, it must also provide the source code so that the users can easily evolve the to fit their needs and any created with free must be free as well. Furthermore, open source distribution cannot discriminate against people or fields.
So, how did this concept begin? Most experts on open source will agree that the concept of open source began with the creation of the internet which was created and improved upon by it’s users who continually changed the code to make it work for them.
Then, when computers were first used, programs were often sent as a printed version that had to be entered into the computer line by line. Programmers not only entered the programs onto the computers, they also were able to “play” with the programs and make changes as well as share there ideas with others.
Once computer became more mainstream and people other than programmers began using programs, the need (and desire) for the source code declined. This is when companies began realizing the economical benefits of keeping their source
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