One of the first buildings I saw when I drove to N.C. State was the Red Hat Inc. office building on Centennial Campus. It should have served as an early indicator of how much NCSU has embraced Linux and other flavors of open source systems, but the fact did not settle in until I learned more about the various computing facilities made available to students on campus.
Open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product’s source materials. The end user is usually permitted to modify the processes to suit his or her purposes and even redistribute the item within certain license restrictions. Though the term is widely used in the context of computer software, it encompasses all categories of human activity where the end user has access to the ingredients or tools used in the production of an item.
Open source is especially suited for students and researchers as it allows them to gain an idea about what is happening at the backend and perhaps try out a few tweaks of their own. It is a great tool for collaboration, and allows one to build upon what already exists without having to re-invent the wheel. More often than not, open source products can be more easily adapted to one’s specific needs and circumstances. And of course, the fact that majority of open source is available for free or for little cost should be a strong enough incentive for one to switch to open source products.
We have seen an explosion in the development and deployment of open source technologies in the past decade. Consider how the internet browser Firefox has picked up in popularity, or how Android phones are shaping up to be top contenders in the mobile market. “In software projects alone,” says Amit Deshpande and Dirk Riehle in ‘The Total Growth of Open Source,’ “the total amount of source code and software projects are growing at an exponential rate. The same applies to new applications and fields which adopt the open source philosophy.
At NCSU, Open Source Initiative (OSI), created by Campus Linux Services, spearheads the adoption of and participation in Open Source projects. Started in October of 2007, OSI seeks to bring together open source projects done by various groups on campus, leading to more collaborations and meaningful contributions to the community at large.
This does not mean that closed source, where the user sees only the end product after perhaps paying a huge price for it, is irrelevant. If the inventor of a technique wishes to make a profit from his or her effort, or wishes to maintain control of how his or her invention is used or developed further, they have every right to make it closed source. Under certain circumstances, closed source might even suit your purpose more than an open source equivalent.
My personal experience at my former work place made me realize that companies may shy away from open source products as technical support may not be available or because they fear that the product itself may cease to exist once the community’s interest has moved on. In other words, a completely open project may not be able to always suit your purposes, unless of course you have the time, skill and other resources at your disposal.
