Open source refers to a software for which the underlying code is available for the users to understand, modify or alter it in new versions. This may result into a collaborative effort put forward to build better software. Open source also facilitates every individual to adjust a code to his/her needs.

A brief History of Open Source Software Movement

It was only in late 1970s and early 1980s that the sharing of the software began it really come in conflict with the proprietary software. At the pioneering MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab in 1980s, a company called Symbolics was formed and took a freely available code (the LISP programming language) and made it proprietary. It only wiped out the software sharing culture of MIT lab at the time.

Richard Stallman, one of the MIT Lab members at that time, was appalled at the turn of events. It would shape his view of proprietary software and instill him to create a free operating system. The GNU (a recursive acronym for GNU is Not Unix) project was born in 1984.

This one step later led to the development of many open source software.