Blog post · Openness
State of Openness in India's E-Governance Applications
Open source software (OSS), also commonly known as free and open source software (FOSS) or free libre open source software (FLOSS), is software that is made available with its source code. It is licensed liberally, granting users access to study, use, modify, improve, or redistribute it. This work was sponsored by Mozilla Foundation.
In this context, the term ‘open’ refers to the source code being made available without having to pay royalties or licensing fees, while the term ‘free’ refers to the freedom to copy and use the software rather than being ‘free of cost’. The two organisations that are the self-appointed custodians of these definitions are the Free Software Foundation (FSF)2 and the Open Software Initiative (OSI).3 While the two organisations and the two terms resulted from different philosophies and represent different methodologies, the FSF and OSI acknowledge that for all practical purposes, “they both refer to essentially the same thing”4; “however, the differences in extension of the category are small: nearly all free software is open source, and nearly all open source software is free.
Click to download the research paper authored by Upasana Hembram and reviewed by Divyansha Sehgal. Shared under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.