open source

Open source commonly refers to software in which the source code is available and can be copied, edited, or changed by anyone. The advantage to this type of software is that anyone using the sofware can discover a bug and fix it. In theory, if the program is used by enough people that have programming skills, all the bugs will eventually be found and fixed. In practice, open source programs don't always work in this way, and many times most of the bugs end up being fixed by the software developers.

See also

• frree software