If you ever noticed that some scripts are released under the GPL or some similar license, that indicates that it is open source. Open source means that A) the program is free B ) you can modify it C) you can redistribute it (only under the same terms, without modifying any copyright statements), even if you modified it (as far as I remember). One of the reasons behind this is because people hate companies like Micro$oft that charge high prices and impose almost no freedom on your rights to their (money-making) software. I personally wish that many decent programs would be free, although I can't name any at the moment. I have a number of open source programs in use: Mambo, WordPress, Apache, XAMPP and 7-Zip. I didn't pay a cent, and in fact, they work better than their paid counterparts (at least they are faster and smaller). So if you decide to write a program, but don't want money from it, consider making it open source, and expect many smiles .

This post has been edited by michaelper22: Feb 28 2006, 02:24 AM

ho yeah man i'm totally according with you, though i use Windows it doesnt mean i'm pleased or happy with it but i just haven't change to another OS beacause the great games i like are most of them available to pc so i have no choice, btw i hadn't noticed but yep most of free opensource code is lighter than some copyright programs.

here in Philippines copyright is not a problem since virtually copyright on softwares does not exist in my country you could buy WinXP SP 2 for 2 dollars here on 1 cd which is 2 dollars only you could have as many softwares which are all cracks or have a keygen pretty neat

Copyright and intellectual property law is applicable almost everywhere. It may not be enforced, but that doesn't mean it's legal. Here is a reasonably good resource on copyright law in your particular part of the world - I think you should probably read it.

Anyway, this is getting a little off topic. There is indeed a lot of very good open source software floating around, although it obviously doesn't meet the same standard as the commercial market in all areas, in terms of functionality and reliability. Not all open source software is published under the same license - although the Free Software Foundation recommends the GNU GPL for free, open-source software, there are other licenses available for authors to license their work under whilst keeping it open source and free, so it's worth getting familiar with the particular license a package is distributed under before going ahead and making modifications or redistributing it.

Mhh if you open a topic about opensource thats cool but please do get the facts right

First of all opensource does not mean free like in free beer if you want to get payed for your opensource project you have the freedom of doing so. For exampe see linux suse and cedega (winex).

Opensource is about the freedom and choices you have without any reall restrictions if you like to make a program for windows, *nix or mac its up to you. Did you find a opensource program wich has no multyplatform support well port it to the OS you want it to run on.

You have the freedom (again a word with free in it ) to gain money from a project you have started/maked because hey we all need to eat but you have to nake the source vieuwable and modification of the file has to be possible.

And beside that it has nothing to do with people hating Microsoft (thats the way it is spelled and not micro$oft) but with people that like to control what is happening in there computer or simply like to write programs others can improve.

I am a linux user for 7years now and sure I dont like to use windows but thats not because I hate microsoft but because I like to control my computer the way I want and not the way microsoft thinks is good for me. But thats my free-choice

A) I spelled Microsoft wrong on purpose (the company is a huge money machine, 90% of anything they make ain't free), since I'm talking about open source which 97% of all Microsoft software isn't. I have found many Windows open source apps out there (take a trip over to Sourceforge.net and see for yourself).

I've used Windows for years and also have gripes about it, but won't switch because my support department (actually Daddy) won't cover it (although I plan to install SuSE 9.1 Pro on an old machine of mine)

C)

What exactly do you mean? Most project creators do accept donations, and (I would expect) have a real job.


That's why many people use *nix. See http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,113746,00.asp#

This post has been edited by michaelper22: Feb 5 2006, 06:49 PM

What I mean is that 95% of the people think (and you aply it to) that opensource is always free of charge and thats not the thing. Some opensource projects cost money look for instance at the distro you want to install suse is one of the linux distro's that need to be payed for (or you could try a ftp installation).

I dont know if you used a linux distro before but if you are new into it I would reccomend you to try ubuntu a distro based on debian and really easy to use. Rpm based systems like fedora, mandriva and suse are oke but if you want to installsoftware from source or just drivers for your videocard you could come into trouble as a first-time user. Imo ubuntu makes it all easier and even your dad could use it easely

I am not using ubuntu btw but debian and I use to use gentoo which is also a good distro but I hated the time it needed to compile software (X-server for instance took 8 hours on gentoo and a few minuts on debian).

Most opensources are free anyway, like joomla and phpbb running on most websites. SuSe is now OpenSuSe and now allows to do downloads ISO if you don't want to go for pro. The best resource for opensource is sourceforge.net

what you say is true MOST!! not ALL!! and thats the point I wanted to make in the first place

OpenSuSe oke that is a project I did not know of but hey I aint into rpm distro's anyway