Open source Software

Introduction:

Computers and internet have transformed our lives. Software is required to work on a computer but  the software that we buy or download only comes in the compiled ready-to-run version. It is next to impossible to modify the compiled version of the software. At times we feel the need to change certain features of the software but are unable to do so. In this chapter we will study about software which are developed collaboratively and they can be modified as well. Such software are available in many forms like Free Software, Open Source Software (OSS), Free Open Source Software (FOSS) and Free/Liberal Open Source Software (FLOSS).Well, have you noticed something common in all these terms. That's right!
It is the word free. People often correlate this word with the cost. They think that these software are available for free. Practically, these software can be acquired at very little or no cost. But, here, "free" means freedom to use. These software can be studied, copied, redistributed freely and even modified according to one's need without seeking any kind of permission.
In order to modify such software the developers also provide the source code to the users. There do exist software which are actually "free" in the sense of price. These are known as Freeware. Lots of freeware can be downloaded from the internet for various different purposes such as currency converters, drawing graphs and charts etc. But freeware may not come with the source code. Therefore freeware differ from free software. The focus in this chapter is on free software rather than freeware. The first formal definition of "free software" was given in 1983 by Richard Stallman, a long time member of the hacker community at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He insisted that a free software should give the following four freedoms to users:
Freedom 0: The freedom to run the program for any purpose.
Freedom 1: The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish.
Freedom 2: The freedom to redistribute copies so as to help your neighbour.
Freedom 3: The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements (and modified versions in general) to the public, so that the whole community benefits.
National Resource Centre for Free and Open Source Software (NRCFOSS) is an initiative of the  Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology,Government of India. NRCFOSS contributes to the growth of FOSS in Indiathrough Research & Development, Human Resource Development, Networking & Entrepreneurship development, as well as serves as the reference point for all FOSS related activities in the country.

Examples of FLOSS/FOSS :

Operating systems and Desktop environments
Linux - Operating system kernel
Ubuntu - Linux distribution with full complement of software for everyday use.
Google Chrome OS - Lightweight operating system based around the web browser
Android smart - phone operating system - by Google / Open Handset Alliance
Symbian smart - phone operating system - by Nokia
GIMP - Bitmap graphics editor, similar to Adobe Photoshop
Blender - Advanced 3D modelling and rendering application.
Songbird - similar to iTunes with built-in browser.
Audacity - digital audio editor
Ardour - digital audio workstation
F-Spot - Photo manager
OpenOffice.org - office productivity software. Comparable to Microsoft Office. It uses an open file format and can read and write Microsoft Office files
NeoOffice - Mac .OS X version of OpenOffice
PDFCreator - creates PDFs from any Windows program.
Apache webserver - web server
Mozilla Firefox - web browser
Mozilla Thunderbird - mail client
Google Chrome - Google's web browser
Celestia - 3D space simulation software.
Flight Gear - flight simulator
Second life - virtual world viewer
Wine - a compatibility layer for computers running Linux that enables them to run many applications that were originally written for MS Windows Programming related
Eclipse - software framework and Java IDE.
PHP - server-side programming language.
PERL - Dynamic programming language.
Python - versatile, clean and powerful programming language used for crossplatform desktop applications, server-side scripting for websites, and scripting within java and .net environments
MySQL - Database management system
Java - Programming language.

GNU /LINUX

GNU is a Unix-like operating system that is free software—it respects your freedom. You can install versions of GNU (more precisely, GNU/Linux systems) which are entirely free software.The GNU Project was launched in 1984 to develop the GNU system. The name

“GNU” is a recursive acronym for “GNU's Not Unix!”. A Unix-like operating system is a software collection of applications, libraries, and developer tools, plus a program to allocate resources and talk to the hardware, known as a kernel.
GNU is typically used with a kernel called Linux.This combination is the GNU/Linux operating system. 
GNU/Linux is used by millions, though many . call it “Linux” by mistake GNU's own kernel, The Hurd continues to be developed because it is an interesting technical project.
How to pronounce GNU
“GNU” is pronounced g'noo, as one syllable, like saying “grew” but replacing the r with n.
Office software Internet related software How to pronounce GNU Linux and the GNU System.

Linux and the GNU System

Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called “Linux”, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called “Linux” distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.Many users do not understand the difference between the kernel, which is Linux, and the whole system, which they also call “Linux”. The ambiguous use of the name doesn't help people understand. These users often think that Linus Torvalds developed the whole operating system in 1991, with a bit of help.Programmers generally know that Linux is a kernel. But since they have generally heard the whole system called “Linux” as well, they often envisage a history that would justify naming the whole system after the kernel. For example, many believe that once Linus Torvalds finished writing Linux, the kernel, its users looked around for other free software to go with it, and found that (for no particular reason) most everything necessary to make a Unix-like system was already available.

What they found was no accident—it was the not-quite-complete GNU system. The available free software added up to a complete system because the GNU Project had been working since 1984 to make one. In the The GNU Manifesto we set forth the goal of developing a free Unix-like system, called GNU. 

The Initial Announcement of the GNU Project also outlines some of the original plans for the GNU system. By the time Linux was started, GNU was almost finished.

Firefox:Firefox is a free and open source web browser produced by Mozilla Foundation. Firefox runs on various versions of GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and many other Unix-like operating systems.
NetBeans - NetBeans began in 1996 as verify, a JavaIntegrated Development Environment (IDE) studentproject, under the guidance of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at 
Charles University in Prague. In 1999 it was bought by Sun Microsystem which open-
sourced the NetBeans IDE in June of the following year. The NetBeans community has 
since continued to grow,thanks to individuals and companies using and contributing to the project. NetBeans refers to both a platform framework for Java desktop applications, and an IDE for developing applications with Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, C, C++, and others.
OSI: is Open Sourece initiative .It is an organaisation dedicated to cause of promoting open source software .BrucPerense and Erics Raymond were the founder of OSI ,that was founded in feb 1998.