- Image by bridgetds via Flickr
Open source software is not a new idea or innovation. In fact, software designers have been campaigning for the development and distribution of free software since the early 1980s, for a number of reasons. One of the first types of software to achieve success in the open source arena is the web browser. The browser is the program that allows users to access and view web sites like online casino sites on the Internet; however, it is important to understand that a browser now does so much more than just facilitate “surfing.” With applications accessed through the Internet, and therefore through the browser, much of what we initially used networks for has gone open source.
One of the biggest names in open source software is Mozilla. When Microsoft’s Internet Explorer won the browser war over Navigator, Netscape’s leaders pulled back to regroup and Mozilla was born from the ashes. Mozilla’s offerings include FileZilla, and FTP client; KompoZer, an HTML and CSS editor; Firefox, the web browser; and Thunderbird, an email client. These open source software offerings all available for free download and are capable of keeping with the costly big-name alternatives developed by other companies.
Perhaps the most exciting new innovation in open source software is the number of web-based MS Office competitors. Products like Google Docs, Zoho and Open Office.org provide the same word-processing, spreadsheet and presentation applications, and all are capable of saving files to the user’s hard drive with MS Office compatible file extensions. These are particularly enticing for users who work from more than one PC, for instance those who often travel or work from home. As it stands today, there are fewer and fewer applications types that have not been replicated as an open source software. As “cloud computing” takes off, we can be sure that even those days are numbered. In simple terms, open source software are those which don’t require to reach prepaid card.
