Presented by:
R.Venu Reddy

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1. Abstract
Open Source software is perceived as a free alternative to commercial software because no per user or per computer charges are levied. There is now a wide range of Open Source software available including operating systems and applications which in some cases can offer similar functionality to commercial software with no licensing costs. In Part one this paper covers the background and clarifies the terms used in Open Source developments and in Part two, it documents current usage and identifies other factors which need to be considered before selecting an Open Source solution. Open Source and Free software is characterised by the freedoms and constraints imposed by the terms of the licence. For example, the GNU General Public Licence (GPL), developed by the Free Software Foundation in 1989, would grant you the freedom to deploy copies of the software, including customised versions, without incurring any licensing fees. The Free in Free Software refers to the freedom to use the software as you please. Hence, the source code – a human readable form of the program – must be included. (This is the source referred to in Open Source.) When you buy a computer system you are buying the hardware and licensing the software. The licensing terms control what actions can and cannot be performed and most software uses a licence designed to ensure that the creators of materials and resources are acknowledged and rewarded for their work. This gives rise to the standard practice of charging a royalty per user or per device using the software. Open Source software uses a different type of licence aimed at ensuring the software’s development and royalty free distribution.
Introduction
Open Source software is perceived as a free alternative to commercial software because no per user or per computer charges are levied. There is now a wide range of Open Source software available including operating systems and applications which in some cases can offer similar functionality to commercial software with no licensing costs. In Part one this paper covers the background and clarifies the terms used in Open Source developments and in Part two, it documents current usage and identifies other factors which need to be considered before selecting an Open Source solution.
When you buy a computer system you are buying the hardware and licensing the software. The licensing terms control what actions can and cannot be performed and most software uses a licence designed to ensure that the creators of materials and resources are acknowledged and rewarded for their work. This gives rise to the standard practice of charging a royalty per user or per device using the software. Open Source software uses a different type of licence aimed at ensuring the software’s development and royalty free distribution
Preamble(foreword) of the problem/Topic
Open source - the source availability model used by free and open source software (FOSS) - and closed source are two approaches to the distribution of software.Under the closed source model source code is not released to the public. Close maintained by a team who produces their product in a compiled executable state, which is what the market is allowed access to. Microsoft, the owner and developer of Windows and Microsoft Office, along with other major software companies, have long been proponents of this business model. Although in August 2010,
Microsoft interoperability general manager Jean Paoli said Microsoft "loves open source" and its anti-open source position was a mistake. The FOSS model allows for able users to view and modify a product's source code. Common advantages cited by proponents for having such a structure are expressed in terms of trust, acceptance, teamwork and quality. A non-free license is used to limit what free software movement advocates consider to be the essential freedoms. A license, whether providing open source code or not, that does not stipulate the "four software freedoms", are not considered "free" by the free software movement. A closed source license is one that limits only the availability of the source code. By contrast a copyleft license claims to protect the "four software freedoms" by explicitly granting them and then explicitly prohibiting anyone to redistribute the package or reuse the code in it to make derivative works without including the same licensing clauses. Some licenses grant the four software freedoms but allow redistributors to remove them if they wish. Such licenses are sometimes called permissive software licenses.An example of such a license is the BSD license which allows derivative software to be distributed as non-free or closed source, as long as they give credit to the original designers.
FOSS can and has been commercialized by companies such as Red Hat, IBM, Novell, Oracle, Mozilla Foundation, VMware and others.
Proprietary software
The primary business model for closed-source software involve the use of constraints on what can be done with the software and the restriction of access to the original source code. This can result in a form of imposed artificial scarcity on a product that is otherwise very easy to copy and redistribute. The end result is that an end-user is not actually purchasing software, but purchasing the right to use the software. To this end, the source code to closed-source software is considered a trade secret by its manufacturers.
FOSS
FOSS methods, on the other hand, typically don't limit the use of software in this fashion. Instead, the revenue model is based mainly on support services. Red Hat Inc. and Canonical Ltd. are such companies that give its software away freely, but charge for support services. The source code of the software is usually given away, and pre-compiled binary software frequently accompanies it for convenience. As a result, the source code can be freely modified. However, there can be some license-based restrictions on re-distributing the software. Generally, software can be modified and re-distributed for free, as long as credit is given to the original manufacturer of the software. In addition, FOSS can generally be sold commercially, as long as the source-code is provided. There are a wide variety of free software licenses that define how a program can be used, modified, and sold commercially (see GPL, LGPL, and BSD-type licenses). FOSS may also be funded through donations.
2. Related work/ Existing systems/concept :
Open source software is software whose source code is published and made available to the public, enabling anyone to copy, modify and redistribute the source code without paying royalties or fees. Open source code evolves through community cooperation. These communities are composed of individual programmers as well as very large companies. Examples of open-source software products are:
Programming languages:
PHP - Scripting language suited for the web
PYTHON - Scripting language for window applications
RUBY - Scripting language
OS:
GNU Project — “a sufficient body of free software”
Linux — operating system kernel based on Unix
NetBSD - operating system derived from Unix
OpenBSD — operating system derived from Unix
FreeBSD — operating system derived from Unix
OpenSolaris — Unix Operating System from Sun Microsystems
Symbian — real-time mobile operating system