To me “Open Source” is trying to do the same thing but for a much broader community. The spirit of this type of software development has always been positive and the outcomes quite amazing.

Nay-sayers like MicroSoft have put fear into using “Open Source” software only because they are protecting their own commercial interests. But having worked in software development for over 20 years I can say that these fears are unfounded as today it is the same type of people who write software for “private” and “open” projects – as it has been for the last 20 years that I know of.

The rigid structures and processes used for developing critical software for commercial purposes are successful at producing the desired outcomes – in most cases – but is the source base any better? My experience has been that the variance in quality between the two is quite similar.

The electronic world has benefited greatly with the continual growth of “Open Source” as this type of collaborative development lends itself well to creating tools, libraries, frameworks and things people never imagined. The momentum of “Open Source” development will continue to grow and so too will the “private” commercial software that makes use of it.

So what on earth is “Open Source”? “Open Source” is what the software industry does to improve itself; otherwise nobody would be doing it.