What is Open Source?

All software is built with source code. Open source means the code can be seen and changed. With this power comes control.

In the proprietary model, development occurs within one company. Programmers write code, hide it behind binaries, charge customers to use the software--then charge them more to fix it when it breaks. No one ever has to know how bad the software really is. Bad software costs companies $78 billion per year, according to CIO Magazine.

The problem worsens when you become tied to a company's protocols and file formats. Then you're hooked. Bruce Perens calls this the “addiction model of software procurement.” Any model that puts customers at such a fundamental disadvantage is conceptually broken.

That's why open source is inevitable. It returns control to the customer. The code is open and you can see it, change it, learn from it. Bugs are more quickly found and fixed. And when customers don't like how one vendor is serving them, they can choose another without overhauling their infrastructure. That means: No more arbitrary pricing. No more technology lock-in. No more monopolies.

And we believe open source simply creates better software. It multiplies one company's development capacity many times over. Everybody collaborates, the best software wins. Not just within one company, but among an Internet-connected, worldwide community. It's no coincidence that the rise of open source closely followed the rise of the Internet. The perfect breeding ground for collaboration, the Internet moves ideas and code around the world in an instant.

But it doesn't just happen by accident. Larger open source projects have a complex leadership structure. These leaders oversee a process that collects software submitted by the open source community, then integrate the software, test it, and decide whether or not to include it in an upcoming release.

Red Hat then assembles the kernel with other elements of the operating system, follows a complex quality assurance process, and certifies it for use with the top enterprise hardware and software vendors. This creates a standard platform--a key factor in enterprise adoption. Widespread support provides the necessary stability to take Linux into mission-critical deployments.

The most widely known open source software is the Linux operating system. Linux made up 25% of all server operating systems sold in 2001--#2 in the market--according to IDC. And the open source Apache web server is the #1 web server, holding 67% of the market, according to E-Soft.

The concept behind open source is not new. For centuries, universities and other research communities have shared their work. Monks copied books by hand. Scientists publish new discoveries in journals. Imagine if we were unable to build on this past knowledge. Yet this is the mentality on which the proprietary software model depends.

In the same way shared knowledge propels the whole of society forward, open technology development can drive innovation for an entire industry.