Gadgetory

open-source software I'm sure a friend or at least a weird roommate has told you about it at some point or another often with the derisive snort about the fact that you're plugging away writing this video on the copy of Microsoft Office that you paid for ah but don't just bury your head in the expensive sand maybe there's actually something to it we'll start by describing the opposite of open-source software proprietary or closed source this stuff follows the centuries-old monetization model of gather or make something that people want and then sell it to them at a given price sort of through the use of mandatory licensing agreements that you implicitly sign when you run it proprietary software avoids selling you a copy of the software that after you've bought it then belongs to you instead they'll sell you a license to use the software that comes with a variety of restrictions including limiting what you may or may not use it for whether you can share it whether you're allowed to alter or reverse-engineer it or even limiting the hardware it can be installed on Apple famously gives away their OS 10 operating system updates for free as long as you meet the necessary hardware requirements well that sounds like rubbish I should own the things I pay for is this how open-source works sometimes actually the answer is a little more complicated in that it depends on the licensing that word again so we'll start with a special case that many folks confuse with open source called source available this applies to software that may have been published on a blog or otherwise entered the public domain but that the Creator has not explicitly allowed modification or reuse without payment or even at all open source software by contrast is usually free software but these terms actually shouldn't be confused because free software is strictly speaking more of a philosophy and open source is just a development model where many collaborators contribute to a piece of software together to make it deliver as much value to the user as it can so let's talk advantages number one it's free to and if like most open source programs it's licensed under the GPL it can actually be studied modified and shared as often as you want and with whomever you want as long as the derivative works carry the same freedoms it's called copyleft it's kind of a play on the copyright thing cool right on top of that open source advocates will point to quick implementation of new features and standards and these security and error checking benefits of having a huge community overlooking the development but there are two sides to every coin and detractors often people as a bacon-flavored mouth guard and then a user interface on top of that that's flat-out impossible for an average user to navigate not to mention that there's no tech support hotline reducing its usability once more so then why do developers contribute their valuable time to this movement well some do it out of a strong moral belief that everyone should have access to functional and secure software others do it just for fun or to share little projects they created in their spare time and see what happens to them as others continue to modify them and others have actually found ways to make money by giving the software away whether it's by charging for support charging for optimized hardware or charging other companies sponsorship fees for access to their large install base and on the subject of charging companies sponsorship fees to access a large user base lynda.com we're telling you about it they paid us for it watch and learn from top experts who are passionate about teaching on lynda.com you can stream thousands of video courses on demand and learn on your own schedule at your own pace you can browse course transcripts you can create your own playlists take notes as you go watch on your iOS or Android devices and you can learn all kinds of great things whether it's digital photography or video editing or business or coding they've got stuff to help you take your career or your hobby to the next level so it's as simple as heading over to lynda.com - tech quickie and signing up for a free trial today you actually get ten days of all-you-can-eat and if you decide you like it then starting at $25 a month you can go ahead and extend that membership and keep on learning you learn in person you I think that's pretty much it guys thanks for watching like the video if you liked it dislike it if you thought it sucked - leave a comment if you have suggestions for future fast as possible and as always don't forget to subscribe follow and all that good stuff for more videos for me and other people