Edge Rewrite
restyle Source code View original
// HTMLRewriter · presentation

This page was redesigned at the edge.

Cloudflare fetched the original article and streamed it through HTMLRewriter to apply an entirely new visual system without rebuilding the source page.

Jump to content

Open source

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from OpenSource)

Open source is the practice of publishing digital resources publicly alongside their source code or source files, enabling use, study, modification, and redistribution. It is historically and commonly associated with open-source software, software released with its source code. The concept has also been applied beyond software to other digital resources made available alongside their source files or design documents, such as open-source hardware, open-source educational resources or open-source fonts.[1][2][3][4][5][6] The right to use, study, modify, and redistribute this type of digital resources is typically granted through a specific legal framework, usually with open licenses. The development of open source resources can be based on open collaboration.[7][8]

The term open source can also refer to publicly available sources of information, notably in intelligence field with open-source intelligence (OSINT). By analogy to such practices of public access and collaboration, the notion is also used more loosely across many domains.

Source files

[edit]

Source files are the files containing the original, editable version of a digital resource from which a final format can be created – suitable for distribution and end use. Each type of digital resource has specific source file formats, compiled, rendered or compressed into a distribution format. Providing these source files can enable future modification and improvements.

Source files and distribution formats by domain
DomainSource fileDistribution format
Documents.md, .tex, .odt.pdf
Images.svg, .psd.png, .jpg
Fonts.glyphs, .ufo.ttf, .otf, .woff
Hardware.fcstd, .kicad.stl, .gerber
Software.c, .go, .pyexecutable
Music.mid, .aup.mp3
[edit]

By default with the current copyright system around the world, new works are automatically protected on creation with all rights reserved to its author.[9] Legal instruments have been developed across open practices to grant reuse, modification and distribution rights, including open licenses and public domain dedications, with distinct types emerging for each domain.[10][11] While works in the public domain could represent the maximum degree of openness,[9] open licenses can come with few or no restrictions[12] forming a spectrum of openness from fully copyrighted to fully open works.[13]

Creative Commons license spectrum by Shaddim, CC BY 4.0

Different open licenses have been developed to address the specific legal and practical needs of different types of digital resources, as a license suitable for one domain may not be suitable for another.[14] Creative Commons licenses are widely used for cultural work, including research articles, educational resources, and artistic works. In software, a common set of open licenses are those approved by the Open Source Initiative based on their Open Source Definition[15] — it requires licenses to allow anyone to use the software for any purpose. For fonts, there is the SIL Open Font License which prohibits the standalone sale of font files;[16] for hardware, there is the CERN Open Hardware Licence which extends coverage to patent rights alongside copyright; for data, there is the Open Database License which addresses specific database rights beyond copyright. These are illustrative examples of key licenses for each field; each domain encompasses a variety of open licenses offering different sets of rights and permissions.

Open collaboration

[edit]
This section is an excerpt from Open collaboration.[edit]

Open collaboration refers to any "system of innovation or production that relies on goal-oriented yet loosely coordinated participants who cooperate voluntarily to create a product (or service) of economic value, which is made freely available to contributors and noncontributors alike."[17] It is prominently observed in open source software, and has been initially described in Richard Stallman's GNU Manifesto,[18] as well as Eric S. Raymond's 1997 essay, The Cathedral and the Bazaar. Beyond open source software, open collaboration is also applied to the development of other types of mind or creative works, such as information provision in Internet forums, or the production of encyclopedic content in Wikipedia.[19]

The organizing principle behind open collaboration is that of peer production.[20] Peer production communities are structured in an entirely decentralized manner, but differ from markets in that they function without price-based coordination, and often on the basis of volunteering only. Such communities are geared toward the production of openly accessible public or "common" goods, but differ from the State as well as charity groups in that they operate without a formal hierarchical structure, and rest solely on the construction of a rough, evolving consensus among participants.[21][22]

This model has become increasingly important in online knowledge communities.

Type of open source resources

[edit]

Software

[edit]
This section is an excerpt from Open-source software.[edit]
A screenshot of Debian Linux running the Cinnamon desktop environment, featuring Firefox (accessing Wikipedia which uses MediaWiki), LibreOffice Writer, Vim, VLC and Nemo file manager, all of which are open-source software

Open-source software (OSS) is computer software whose source code is publicly available, allowing users to use, study, modify, and distribute it — in contrast with proprietary (closed-source) software. These abilities are typically granted through open licenses or, more rarely, by dedication to the public domain. The development of open-source software can be based on open collaboration, a decentralized model of production. It is commonly defined according to the Open Source Definition of the Open Source Initiative, but the precise meaning of open source remains a source of conflicts.

Open-source software offers a range of benefits, but also presents specific risks and challenges.[23] It can provide improved accessibility through lower and shared costs, greater adaptability through customization, transparency with auditable code, better interoperability via open standards, and independence from vendor lock-in, among others. Due to its ubiquity in modern software, open-source software raises major cybersecurity concerns, as well as significant maintenance challenges.

Open-source software has become the backbone of the global digital infrastructure, powering domains such as web servers, cloud computing, supercomputers, mobile devices, artificial intelligence, and Internet of Things. A 2022 estimate suggests that between 80 and 96 percent of the code making up software on the market today, including proprietary software, is of open-source origin.[24] Its adoption has grown steadily across public institutions, the private sector, and academia, driven by motivations of cybersecurity, digital sovereignty, and independence from proprietary software, with significant geopolitical implications. Organizations are increasingly setting up Open Source Program Offices to manage their strategies.

Open-source software has its roots in the culture of source code sharing that dates back to the origins of computing in the 1950s. The term was formalized in 1998 with the founding of the Open Source Initiative, succeeding the free software movement initiated in the 1980s, with the intention of overcoming the ambiguity of the word "free" — meaning both freedom and gratis — to better appeal to the business world.

Major examples include the Linux kernel and the Firefox web browser. MediaWiki, the software powering Wikipedia, is itself an example of open-source software.

Hardware

[edit]
This section is an excerpt from Open-source hardware.[edit]
The "open source hardware" logo proposed by OSHWA, one of the main defining organizations
The RepRap Mendel general-purpose 3D printer with the ability to make copies of most of its own structural parts

Open-source hardware (OSH, OSHW) is hardware whose design source files — schematics, CAD files, bill of materials — are made publicly available, allowing anyone to study, modify, make and distribute the hardware.[25][26][27] Both free and open-source software (FOSS) and open-source hardware are created by this open-source culture movement and apply a similar concept to a variety of components. It is sometimes, thus, referred to as free and open-source hardware (FOSH), meaning that the design is easily available ("open") and that it can be used, modified and shared freely ("free").[citation needed] The term usually means that information about the hardware is easily discerned so that others can make it – coupling it closely to the maker movement.[28] Hardware design (i.e. mechanical drawings, schematics, bills of material, PCB layout data, HDL source code[29] and integrated circuit layout data), in addition to the software that drives the hardware, are all released under free/libre terms. The original sharer gains feedback and potentially improvements on the design from the FOSH community. There is now significant evidence that such sharing can drive a high return on investment for the scientific community.[30]

It is not enough to merely use an open-source license; an open source product or project will follow open source principles, such as modular design and community collaboration.[31][32][33]

Since the rise of reconfigurable programmable logic devices, sharing of logic designs has been a form of open-source hardware. Instead of the schematics, hardware description language (HDL) code is shared. HDL descriptions are commonly used to set up system-on-a-chip systems either in field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA) or directly in application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designs. HDL modules, when distributed, are called semiconductor intellectual property cores, also known as IP cores.

Open-source hardware also helps alleviate the issue of proprietary device drivers for the free and open-source software community, however, it is not a pre-requisite for it, and should not be confused with the concept of open documentation for proprietary hardware, which is already sufficient for writing FLOSS device drivers and complete operating systems.[34][35] The difference between the two concepts is that OSH includes both the instructions on how to replicate the hardware itself as well as the information on communication protocols that the software (usually in the form of device drivers) must use in order to communicate with the hardware (often called register documentation, or open documentation for hardware[34]), whereas open-source-friendly proprietary hardware would only include the latter without including the former.

Artificial intelligence

[edit]
This section is an excerpt from Open-source artificial intelligence.[edit]

Open-source artificial intelligence, as defined by the Open Source Initiative, is an AI system that is freely available to use, study, modify, and share.[36][37] This includes datasets used to train the model, its code, and its model parameters, promoting a collaborative and transparent approach to AI development so someone could create a substantially similar result.[38][39]

The debate over what should count as 'open-source' given a range of openness among AI projects has been significant. Some large language models touted as open-sourced that are merely open weights and do not release training data and code[40][41] have been criticized as "openwashing"[42] systems that are mostly closed.[43]

Popular open-source artificial intelligence project categories include large language models (LLM), machine translation tools, and chatbots.[44] Debate over the benefits and risks of open-sourced AI involve a range of factors like security, privacy and technological advancement.[45][46][43][47] As of July 2026, the largest open-source LLM released is Kimi K3, developed by Moonshot AI, at 2.8 trillion parameters.[48]

Education

[edit]

In open education and by extension to open educational resources (OER), the notion of "open source educational resources" has been theorized to specify OER which provide their source files.[5][6] In order to make meaningful edits to these educational resources it is necessary to access their source files, in accordance with the ALMS framework (Access to Editing Tools, Level of Expertise Required, Meaningfully Editable, Self-Sourced).[49][50] It is common for Open Educational Resources such as open textbooks to be available only in a final format such as PDF, limiting the ability of users to modify them despite the rights provided by open licenses.[51] UNESCO's Recommendation on OER explicitly calls for "developing mechanisms to support and incentivize all stakeholders to publish source files and accessible OER using standard open file formats in public repositories."[52]

Fonts

[edit]

Open source fonts are typefaces made publicly available alongside their source files.[53][54] Font editors store typefaces in source formats such as .glyphs, UFO, or VFC during development, and compile them into binary formats such as OTF, TTF, or WOFF for end use.[55][56] The SIL Open Font License (OFL), created by SIL International in 2005, is a license specifically designed for open source fonts. Notable examples include DejaVu fonts and Source Sans.

Film

[edit]
This section is an excerpt from Open-source film.[edit]

Open-source films (also known as open-content films and free-content films) are films which are produced and distributed by using free and open-source and open content methodologies. Their source files are freely available and the licenses used meet the demands of the Open Source Initiative (OSI) in terms of freedom.

Music

[edit]
This section is an excerpt from Open music.[edit]

Open music is music that is shareable and may provide source files — such as lyrics, MIDI files, samples, track-by-track audio files, or Audacity .AUP project files — allowing meaningful modification.[57][58] It is the concept of "open source" computer software applied to music. However, the non-commercial stipulation associated with Open Music is incompatible with the first section of the Open Source Definition[59] as well as the first freedom put forth in The Free Software Definition (freedom 0).[60] Open Music is one of the general responses to the RIAA's and governmental actions against the music industry and its consumers.

"Open music" can be considered a subset of "free music" (referring to freedom). The differences of philosophy between advocates of "open source software" and "free software" have not surfaced in the community of musicians contributing music to the copyleft commons. This may be due to the relatively recent emergence of copyleft music, as well as to the fact that software development generally involves much more collaboration and derivatization than does music production. It is not clear that open collaboration using copyleft licenses provides any significant advantages in music production, as open source advocates commonly argue is the case for software development.

Several websites have surfaced to provide musicians with the platform and tools necessary for online music collaboration. Most of these sites promote one or more of the Creative Commons licenses, allowing derivative works and sharing of the finished songs. Early implementations of these collaboration sites relied on threaded discussion forum software and FTP to provide a means for musicians to initiate and discuss projects, and to share multi-track files. More recent and modern sites provide robust project-management features, automatic encoding and compression, online playback streaming, web-based upload and download options, chat, and project-based discussion forums.

There are plenty of artists that use Creative Commons Licenses. One of the most open licences is "Creative Commons Attribution" License.

Other meanings

[edit]

Open-source intelligence

[edit]
This section is an excerpt from Open-source intelligence.[edit]

Open-source intelligence (OSINT) is the collection and analysis of data gathered from 'open sources' (overt sources and publicly available information) to produce intelligence. OSINT is primarily used in national security, law enforcement, and business intelligence and is used by analysts to answer classified, unclassified, or proprietary intelligence requirements.

Analogous uses

[edit]

The term "open source" is also used more loosely by analogy to refer to public access of information and/or decentralized collaborative practices.

See also

[edit]

Openness movements

[edit]

Other

[edit]

Notes

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ↑ "GitHub Glossary: Open source". GitHub. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  2. ↑ Balter, Ben (27 January 2014). "Open source, not just software anymore". Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  3. ↑ "Glossary: Open source". The Turing Way Community. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  4. ↑ "What is open source?". Opensource.com. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  5. 1 2 Bothmann, Ludwig; Strickroth, Sven; Casalicchio, Giuseppe; Rügamer, David; Lindauer, Marius; Scheipl, Fabian; Bischl, Bernd (2022). "Developing Open Source Educational Resources for Machine Learning and Data Science". Proceedings of the Third Teaching Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Workshop. PMLR. 207: 1–6. arXiv:2107.14330. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2107.14330.
  6. 1 2 "About the Journal of Open Source Education". Journal of Open Source Education. Retrieved 28 July 2026.
  7. ↑ Levine, Sheen S.; Prietula, M. J. (2013). "Open Collaboration for Innovation: Principles and Performance". Organization Science. 25 (5): 1414–1433. arXiv:1406.7541. doi:10.1287/orsc.2013.0872. ISSN 1047-7039. S2CID 6583883. SSRN 1096442.
  8. ↑ Raymond, Eric S. (2001). The cathedral and the bazaar: musings on Linux and Open Source by an accidental revolutionary. OReilly. ISBN 978-0-596-00108-7.[page needed]
  9. 1 2 Suber, Peter (2012). Open Access. MIT Press. doi:10.7551/mitpress/9286.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-262-51763-8.
  10. ↑ Pomerantz, Jeffrey; Peek, Robin (2016). "Fifty shades of open". First Monday. 21 (5). doi:10.5210/fm.v21i5.6360.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
  11. ↑ Hrynaszkiewicz, Iain; Cockerill, Matthew J. (2012). "Open by default: a proposed copyright license and waiver agreement for open access research and data in peer-reviewed journals". BMC Research Notes. 5. doi:10.1186/1756-0500-5-494.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
  12. ↑ "Guide to Open Licensing". Open Knowledge Foundation. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  13. ↑ "An introduction to open licensing and the public domain". Council of Australian University Librarians. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  14. ↑ Appelquist, Daniel (2023). "What's the deal with Open Source, Open Data, and Open Standards licenses?". torgo.com. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  15. ↑ "Licenses & Standards". Open Source Initiative. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  16. ↑ "OFL FAQ". SIL International. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  17. ↑ Sheen S. Levine; Michael J. Prietula (2014). Open Collaboration for Innovation: Principles and Performance
  18. ↑ Lakhani, Karim R., & von Hippel, Eric (2003). How Open Source Software Works: Free User to User Assistance. Research Policy, 32, 923–943 doi:10.2139/ssrn.290305
  19. ↑ Yochai Benkler, Benjamin Mako Hill and Aaron Shaw (2015). Peer Production: A Form of Collective Intelligence. In Handbook of Collective Intelligence, edited by Thomas Malone and Michael Bernstein. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
  20. ↑ Yochai Benkler (2006). The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. Yale University Press, New Haven, USA.
  21. ↑ Yochai Benkler (2002). Coase's Penguin, or, Linux and The Nature of the Firm. Yale law journal, pp. 369–446
  22. ↑ Faraj, S., Jarvenpaa, S. L., & Majchrzak, Ann (2011). Knowledge Collaboration in Online Communities Archived 2021-10-06 at the Wayback Machine. Organization Science, 22(5), 1224-1239, doi:10.1287/orsc.1100.0614
  23. ↑ Morgan, Lorraine; Finnegan, Patrick (2007). "Benefits and Drawbacks of Open Source Software: An Exploratory Study of Secondary Software Firms". Open Source Development, Adoption and Innovation. Springer. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-72486-7_33.
  24. ↑ Pannier, Alice (2022). Software Power: The Economic and Geopolitical Implications of Open Source Software. Études de l'Ifri. ISBN 979-10-373-0641-8.
  25. ↑ , Open Source Hardware Definition. Freedom Defined. 2011.
  26. ↑ Bonvoisin, Jérémy; Mies, Robert; Boujut, Jean-François; Stark, Rainer (5 September 2017). "What is the 'Source' of Open Source Hardware?". Journal of Open Hardware. 1 (1) 5. doi:10.5334/joh.7. ISSN 2514-1708.
  27. ↑ Vervloesem, Koen (18 October 2023). "Defining open hardware". LWN.net.
  28. ↑ Alicia Gibb (Ed.) Building Open Source Hardware: DIY Manufacturing for Hackers and Makers, Addison-Wesley: New York, pp. 253–277 (2015).
  29. ↑ "Free Hardware and Free Hardware Designs". Free Software Foundation Inc.
  30. ↑ Joshua M. Pearce. (20 June 2015). "Return on Investment for Open Source Hardware Development". Science and Public Policy. 43 (2): 192–195. doi:10.1093/scipol/scv034.
  31. ↑ Gavras, Kosmas (April 2019). "OPEN SOURCE BEYOND SOFTWARE: RE-INVENT OPEN DESIGN ON THE COMMON'S GROUND". Journal of Peer Production. 13.
  32. ↑ MacCormack, Alan; Rusnak, John; Baldwin, Carliss Y. (2011). "Exploring the Duality between Product and Organizational Architectures: A Test of the Mirroring Hypothesis". SSRN 1104745.
  33. ↑ Gavras, Kosmas; Kostakis, Vasilis (2021). "Mapping the types of modularity in open-source hardware". Design Science. 7 e13. doi:10.1017/dsj.2021.11. ISSN 2053-4701.
  34. 1 2 Theo de Raadt (3 December 2016). Open Documentation for Hardware. OpenCON 2006, 2–3 December 2006. Courtyard Venice Airport, Venice/Tessera, Italy.
  35. ↑ Murenin, Constantine A. (10 December 2006). "Почему так важно иметь документацию по программированию железа". Linux.org.ru (in Russian).
  36. ↑ Williams, Rhiannon; O'Donnell, James (22 August 2024). "We finally have a definition for open-source AI". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 28 November 2024.
  37. ↑ Robison, Kylie (28 October 2024). "Open-source AI must reveal its training data, per new OSI definition". The Verge. Retrieved 28 November 2024.
  38. ↑ "The Open Source AI Definition – 1.0". Open Source Initiative. Archived from the original on 31 March 2025. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  39. ↑ "A battle is raging over the definition of open-source AI". The Economist. 6 November 2024. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  40. ↑ "Open Weights: not quite what you've been told". Open Source Initiative. Retrieved 23 September 2025.
  41. ↑ Capoot, Ashley; Sigalos, MacKenzie (5 August 2025). "OpenAI releases lower-cost models to rival Meta, Mistral and DeepSeek". CNBC. Retrieved 23 September 2025.
  42. ↑ Liesenfeld, Andreas; Dingemanse, Mark (5 June 2024). "Rethinking open source generative AI: Open washing and the EU AI Act". The 2024 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency. Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 1774–1787. doi:10.1145/3630106.3659005. ISBN 979-8-4007-0450-5.
  43. 1 2 Widder, David Gray; Whittaker, Meredith; West, Sarah Myers (November 2024). "Why 'open' AI systems are actually closed, and why this matters". Nature. 635 (8040): 827–833. Bibcode:2024Natur.635..827W. doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08141-1. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 39604616.
  44. ↑ Castelvecchi, Davide (29 June 2023). "Open-source AI chatbots are booming — what does this mean for researchers?". Nature. 618 (7967): 891–892. Bibcode:2023Natur.618..891C. doi:10.1038/d41586-023-01970-6. PMID 37340135.
  45. ↑ Sandbrink, Jonas (7 August 2023). "ChatGPT could make bioterrorism horrifyingly easy". Vox. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  46. ↑ Toma, Augustin; Senkaiahliyan, Senthujan; Lawler, Patrick R.; Rubin, Barry; Wang, Bo (December 2023). "Generative AI could revolutionize health care — but not if control is ceded to big tech". Nature. 624 (7990): 36–38. Bibcode:2023Natur.624...36T. doi:10.1038/d41586-023-03803-y. PMID 38036861.
  47. ↑ Davies, Pascale (20 February 2024). "What is open source AI and why is profit so important to the debate?". Euronews. Retrieved 28 November 2024.
  48. ↑ China's Moonshot unveils world's largest open AI model, closing in on US rivals, retrieved 31 July 2026
  49. ↑ Wiley, David (26 September 2023). "Defining the "Open" in Open Content and Open Educational Resources". Improving Learning. Retrieved 28 July 2026.
  50. ↑ Gurell, Seth Michael (2012). Measuring the Technical Difficulty in Reusing Open Educational Resources with the ALMS Analysis Framework (PhD thesis). Brigham Young University.
  51. ↑ "Using Open Educational Resources (OER) for Online Teaching". Western Washington University. Retrieved 26 July 2026.
  52. ↑ "Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER)". UNESCO. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  53. ↑ "Then, now, and the future of open source fonts". Opensource.com. 8 November 2013.
  54. ↑ Corbet, Jonathan (28 August 2012). "Adobe's open source font experience". LWN.net.
  55. ↑ Crossland, Dave (2008). The Free Font Movement (PDF) (MA thesis). University of Reading.
  56. ↑ Jamra, Mark; Patel, Neil; Texin, Tex; Weissman, Dyana (2025). "Font Creation Guidelines" (PDF). Translation Commons.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  57. ↑ "What is "Open Music" ?". Magnatune. Retrieved 7 July 2025.
  58. ↑ "SIGs/Sound". Fedora Project. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
  59. ↑ "The Open Source Definition (Annotated) | Open Source Initiative". Archived from the original on 8 October 2011. Retrieved 5 April 2010.
  60. ↑ "What is Free Software? - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation".
  61. ↑ Berry (2004) Internet Ethics: Privacy, Ethics and Alienation – An Open Source Approach. (PDF file)
  62. ↑ "Battling Disease with Open: Open Source Malaria Consortium". SPARC. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
  63. ↑ Rohde H; Qin, J; Cui, Y; Li, D; Loman, NJ; Hentschke, M; Chen, W; Pu, F; et al. (2011). "Open-Source Genomic Analysis of Shiga-Toxin–Producing E. coli O104:H4" (PDF). N Engl J Med. 365 (8): 718–24. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1107643. ISSN 0028-4793. PMID 21793736.

Further reading

[edit]
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Open_source&oldid=1367003603"