Open-source software (OSS) is computer software with its source code made available with a

license in which the copyright holder provides the rights to study, change and distribute the
software to anyone and for any purpose. Open-source software is often developed in a public,
collaborative manner. Open-source software is the most prominent example of open-source
development and often compared to (technically defined) user-generated content or (legally
defined) open-content movements.
EXAMPLES OF OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE
The following are some major examples include the following:

Firefoxa Web browser that competes with Internet Explorer;

Open Officea competitor to Microsoft Office;

Gimpa graphic tool with features found in Photoshop;

MySQL, Ingres, and Enterprise open source database software packages that each go
head-to-head with commercial products from Oracle, Microsoft, Sybase, and IBM;

Free BSD and Suns Open Solarisopen source versions of the Unix operating system

Proprietary software or closed source software Proprietary software is software that is owned
by an individual or a company (usually the one that developed it). There are almost always major
restrictions on its use, and its source code is almost always kept secret.
Source code is the form in which a program is originally written by a human using a
programming language and prior to being converted to machine code which is directly readable
by a computer's CPU (central processing unit). It is necessary to have the source code in order to
be able to modify or improve a program.
SOME EXAMPLES OF PROPRIETARY SOFTWARE:

Windows

Mac OS X

VMS

Android

Unix

Excel

Word

Photoshop

Internet Explorer

DIFFERRENCE BETWEEN OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE AND PROPRIETARY

SOFTWARE

OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE

PROPRIETARY SOFTWARE

is computer software with its source code made Proprietary software is software that is owned
available with a license in which the copyright

by an individual or a company (usually the one

holder provides the rights to study, change and

that developed it).

distribute the software to anyone and for any

purpose.
No restrictions in use

There are almost always major restrictions on

its use, and its source code is almost always
kept secret

Open source software are

Firefoxa Web browser that competes

Proprietary software are

Windows

with Internet Explorer;

Mac OS X

Open. Office a competitor to Microsoft

VMS

Android

found in Photoshop;

Unix

MySQL, Ingres, and Enterprise open

Excel

Word

Photoshop

Internet Explorer

Office;

Gimp, a graphic tool with features

source database software packages that

each go head-to-head with commercial
products from Oracle, Microsoft,
Sybase, and IBM;

BENEFITS OF OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE

Security: Open source enables anyone to examine software for security flaws. The continuous
and broad peer-review enabled by publicly available source code improves security through the
identification and elimination of defects that might otherwise be missed. Gartner for example,
recommends the open source Apache Web server as a more secure alternative to closed source
Internet Information servers. The availability of source code also facilitates in-depth security
reviews and audits by government customers.
Reliability: Open source is peer reviewed software, which leads to more reliability. The
infrastructure of the Internet is largely composed of open-source programs such as DNS, send
mail, Apache and languages such as HTML and Perl.
Low-cost: Open source software is often developed through community forums and
collaborative. Developers volunteer their time and expertise, and are coordinated by fewer paid
programmers

Flexibility and Freedom In a business context, software flexibility is about being able to choose
solutions suitable for the needs of the users. Many commercial software products will claim
flexibility as a built-in feature and some will undoubtedly be correct
To obtain flexibility at the architectural level, experience shows that it is often best to pick tried
and trusted standards for interworking. If that is done, then best-of breed solutions can be
selected for particular components within the architecture. Provided that the solutions can
interwork suitably, the business should be able to avoid lock-in to a particular supplier and overdependency.