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Open Source Software (OSS) is software that is available under a special license allowing everyone to download it for free and also access the program code. This means that anyone is able to edit the program code and therefore customize the software for their own needs, and in some cases redistribute the source code with different version and a modified Change Log file.

This ability to access the source code is protected by the license under which the software is released. There is a great many Open Source licenses, but they all have one thing in common, they protect the right of the user of the software to access and modify it in any way they desire.
The right to modify applications is in direct contrast to the Closed Source Software model. In Closed Source only the creator of the application has access to the source code, and therefore, only the creator is able to modify the application. This limits the customization of software and the bugs cannot be fixed by common people or people who have knowledge of how to change the source code to meet their needs. As a result, the closed source software does not become as much popular as the open source software.

Being able to change the way an Open Source Software application operates is critical in many business environments. No two businesses are identical and therefore it is unlikely that any one piece of software will satisfy the needs of all potential users. Without the ability to modify their software a company is restricted in its operations by that software.

Who Pays for Open Source Development?

The ability to customize software is critical to allow an organization to continue to improve their business processes, but how does a company afford to pay for such customizations?

One of the side effects of allowing any user access to the source code is that the cost of acquiring the software in the first instance is massively reduced. In most cases the source code is available for no cost. This enables the user to divert resources normally allocated to pay software license fees into enhancing the software.

Here are a few facts to convince you that it most certainly does work:

- Around 70% of web sites are served by the Open Source Apache HTTPD server.

- In a 2002 survey it was found over 31% of UK and nearly 42% of German companies were using or planning to use OSS.

- In 2001, Debian (an Open Source Operating System), contained over 55 million lines of code and was estimated to have consumed over 14,000 person years in development time. That is a development cost of around 1.89 Billion Dollars (US) yet it is still available with no license fees.

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