General outline of what open source software is, and what its used for?
can someone tell me what open source software is and how its used in the world? is it used in the One Laptop Per Child thing?
open source software is in layman’s terms is just software whose source code is made publicly available so that other programmers can use or modify. It can be more complex than that, depending on whose definition you use and when you include licensing (Some licenses only allow the use of software by certain entities, and some only allow the use of part of the code… etc)
Yes, much of the software on the OLPC is open source (but that’s not the only place you’ll find open source software.
About software on the OLPC
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Software_components
About free and open source software on the OLPC
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_on_free/open_source_software
Wikipedia on Open Source Software
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source
Definition from the Open Source Initiative
http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php
open source means that its free along with the source code i.e. linux
it can be any type of software
Open Source software is free and available for any users. It’s a nice way to get alternative program such as text editing, graphic editing instead of spending hundred of dollar on Microsoft Offfice or Photoshop.
One Laptop Per Child program uses Open Source operating system and applications to save the cost.