An experiment to see if we can get a bunch of people to send pull requests about what open source means to them. See CONTRIBUTING for the expected format.
Open source means standing on the shoulders of giants, allowing humanity to accelerate the pace of technological achievement collectively, instead of wasting time starting from square one repeatedly. Open source allows us to examine, learn from, and understand how the software we use everyday works, and how we can write better software ourselves. Open source allows us to create a community around users and contributors. The opportunity of contribution is allowed from any and all instead of exclusive rings of those employed by any one organization.
Open source means that I have a computer with amazing software on it that's available for free. I do almost all my work using Linux, Python, Ruby, Perl, GNU tools. It means we have Wikipedia. I literally can't imagine a world without open source software.
I also think about my experiences contributing to open source software, which have been alternately amazing and super stressful. I've spent time in IRC channels where people answer my questions within minutes and take me seriously, and in channels where I've been mocked for not knowing things.
I think of open source communities as places that are useful and productive and supportive also as places where people can be rude and exclusionary and awful. Building good communities isn't easy work, and open source isn't magical. We can do so well and so badly.
El Open Source es importante para mí, porque me permite abrirme a un mundo mucho más amplio. Aprender de los gigantes, poniendome a la par de los mismos en forma de pequeñas contribuciones. El Open Source significa poner el avance primero. Permitiendo que cualquier persona pueda contribuir, en vez de competir. El Open Source permite crear comunidades, lazos, permite que un completo desconocido ayude a otro. Que la necesidad de uno, se convierta en el beneficio de todos.
Open source means, at the end of the day, sharing. Sharing our knowledge, experiences and learning but also being open and humble for contributions, other perspectives and ideas. The essence of how mankind should work together to create something better and more inclusive while being transparent with our work.
Open source is important because it's part of what we need to make sure that as more and more people across the world come online, they can do so while being in control of their own technology, and without having to pay gatekeepers.
God has a project to bless and transform the world through the work of his people, until the earth is filled with his glory. Open source is important to me because it's one of the ways I can contribute to that project, using the particular skills He has given me.
Open source is important because software is changing human history. And open source is a key part of that process. A lot of human activity was leveraged by software applications. Even the Internet and the web are in part software.
And open source is important to me because it is a way to learn, to practice, and to share with others. The way of doing software is now: open source it. The way to learn programming is: read OS code, write OS code, collaborate with other OS project.
This way of doing programming is changing the metrics of the planet. Now, you and me can be connected, working together, both living thousands of miles. The power is in your brain and fingers. Social position, previous education, welfare, does not matter. The power returns to the people.
Open source gave me insight into our modern world and a way to participate as a productive member. Until the Web, Linux, Perl and XML I have no interest in computers. I was a visual artist and interested in creating things and doing conceptual art.
Being exposed to the web was exciting, but the addictive part came from it's open nature. I was able to see how the web was built. I could see that it wasn't "finished".
Getting started, I never would have tinkered with an opaque blob like the iPhone. I could add to it, without anyone's permission.
This appealed to my creative and intellectual sides. As a coincidence, I discovered that companies would pay for this line of work. Open Source literally changed my life and gave me a reason to participate in mainstream society.
Open source to me is not only the ability to use high quality software, but also the ability to peek inside and truly understand how it works. Software is eating the world, they say, so to me it is critical that the art of creating software be as accessible as possible.
Before I learned of open source software, every thing on my computer was a black box. I had no insight into how it was built or how it worked. It was incredibly limiting, which is why the sense of freedom that comes with using, contributing and writing open source software has few parallels.
OpenSource significa "questa non è una scatola nera", ed ho il diritto/dovere di studiare, modificare e contribuire alle tecnologie che scelgo.
Quando scelgo una tecnologia FLOSS, non scelgo solo le sue funzionalità, ma anche la sua base di codice e la sua community, la sua cultura e le sue "best practices", e quindi da buon cittadino, cerco di "dare e condividere" almeno quanto "prendo ed apprendo".
Computers are tools for creation. Their versatility magnifies our capacity to work, think, and access information. It's been the collective aspirations of generations of engineers, thinkers, and innovators who brought us here. And Open Source is the celebration of and participation in that collaboration.
It's a two way street. Everything framing my interest in computers from my childhood until today has been made better by sharing ideas and the serendipity that comes from that, from sharing webcomics in middle school to writing open source tools today. For the longest time I felt I didn't have much to contribute—now, instead of noticing flaws in software, I notice what I can do to get involved. And whenever software I've help write reaches other people, I feel I've paid back in a small way my fortune in being involved during such an incredible time in technology.
Every patch counts! Including this pull request.
Open source is important because it is the best way to ensure that software is available to benefit everyone in as wide a way as possible: Anyone with a computer can access and modify open source software, and it can't be locked down or restricted. And since software is 'just' information - and information is extremely cheap to transmit - this is not just a theoretical position but a practical one. In fact open source is the natural state of things for software: it takes intention and effort to make software not open.
Open source means making things easier for the next person, who is trying to solve the same problem I just had.
Sometimes that next person goes further, solving new problems, sharing their solution as well.
With time and constructive encouragement, this can become a Community of problem solvers and doers to positively change the world. 😃
Open source, to me, is an amazing culture that is so antithetic to mainstream society, yet I'm surprised at how it evolves so peacefully but strongly. The sense and strength of community is so powerful, that I couldn't have been happier to be a part of this movement, amazed and humbled by the craziest ideas and work that get shared. In simple words, it changed my life.
Open Source means that I get to be a small part of solving problems for thousands, or potentially millions, of people that I will never meet. I get to make the world a better place. I feel a great deal of satisfaction every time I see someone using something that I helped make.
If each line of code or documentation that I improve helps one person do their job a little better, or get home to their family a few minutes earlier, then it was worth the effort. And, in turn, the work that others have done make my life better and more productive, too.
Open source is important to me because it enables me to give something back to the world and help others to create value. It's about working together, helping each other and making everyone's life easier.
Open Source means to me that access to literacy is a right rather than a privilege and that even if I choose to sell my labor I never forfeit my right to share the resulting abundance.
Open Source, to me, means using our combined energy to iterate on, rather than replicate, the work of those before us; and enabling those who follow us to do the same.
Open source to me has moved from a 'nice to have' (1997 when I first downloaded Red Hat Linux) to something that's essential for trust, transparency, and solidarity (2013/14 post-Snowden era). Like the pull request that created this contribution, I want to be able to collaborate, give feedback and discuss the tools that I use in a meaningful way.
As an educator and parent, however, I want to go a step further. Open Source may be a technological method of production, but it's also a wider approach to life. I believe in human flourishing and the Open Source way - with its focus on participation and different notions of 'ownership' really resonate with me.
To me open source means not hiding how you made something so that anyone else can see it, use it, redo it, remake it, live with it, pass it on...as a blogger and book writer I create things so that others can use them. My goal is to change the world, and if you create something powerful enough, it doesn't matter what human channels it goes through...it will eventually change the world.
Open source is important. Human collaboration across an open platform is essential to individual growth and our collective future. That platform is not just a technical implementation of something, but more an ethos, a way of working together. The open web is the communication tool, open source is the way of working together, and when combined we can play to each other's strengths to better ourselves and others quicker, more effectively, and with higher value.
Open source is not just a licensing agreement, or the ability to look at the code. Its understanding the balance of public vs private. Its the ability to work with others, no matter who they are, where they're from, or what they believe. Open source is a way of life.
Learning and creating in new, better ways.
To me the key idea of open source is to be able to remix, improve and extend existing solutions. Open source also helps us not repeat the same mistakes and learn from years of experience of others. In particular, open source software helps us become better programmers and leave our mark for future generations of software developers.
Open Source means to me that you share your creation with the world. You don't just give it out to look at it, you allow people to participate and change the project according to suggestions (after a peer review). You build it with the people and for the people. That way open source is not only about technology - it is about collaboration and sharing responsibilities. It means that your product will go on when you are not part of it any more and others can build on what you did. It protects you from burning out on one product and allows others to start with something that already works.
To me Open Source is a tool in the activist toolbox. It's how we can get things done without having to wait and ask permission, without having to build every. single. thing. we want before we can accomplish great things. We build on each other's work, we build up each other's work together. The fact that I could "view source" on web pages in the earlier days of the web was how I taught myself to make my own web pages. Multiply that out times every thing we do with technology in our lives. Wherever there is a black box, where a corporate power whose only interest is to continue to funnel money into the pockets of the 1%, we will open it up. We (the open source hackers) will reverse engineer, offer alternatives, show it can be done collectively for greater good than any capitalist enterprise. Look around you - open source is running so many of the things we take for granted. It's literally for everyone and we'll keep getting more and more people rallying to it, learning it & building it, so that there's always a non-silo option and transparency into the increasingly present technology in our lives.
Open Source is a collective ownership of code, process and values to create something bigger and more universally-valuable than a centrally-controlled, commercially-prioritized entity can do. It's shared creation and participation as well as consumption.
To me, open source means that different people can come together to make things, share knowledge, and help each other in a way that isn't driven by capitalism. Just as you might give your friend a ride to the airport, babysit their child, or even just sit with them and listen to them talk about their problems for no monetary reward, contributing to open source is not a simple economic transaction. It's true that most people get back more than they give, but what makes contributing to an open-source project worthwhile is something other than immediate financial gain. Often, it's just the knowledge that you are part of something bigger than yourself.
As it is, not everybody has equal access to the opportunity to participate in open source. Setting aside massive inequality in who can learn how to write software in the first place, participating in open source requires not just technical expertise, but willingness to tolerate an extremely male-dominated culture and everything that comes with that. Male domination in open source isn't an accident: many people who participate feel more comfortable being in a closed club with other people like themselves. It's essential to the survival to all that we've built in the open-source world that men learn how to empathize and understand experiences that aren't their own. Otherwise, we'll address the needs of only a tiny sector of the population, and will fail at even that.
Open source means to me - EVERYTHING!! I grew up with a computer and am self taught without open-source I wouldn't be where I am today. I learned everything by seeing what other developer/coders are doing. I started by Viewing Source and changing the code to work with I could. Without learning from someone else I would not be able to take a step back and now teach that to other people. I show them that giving the code back to community only makes the Internet that much better.
Open source means empowerment to me. It allows us to stand on the shoulders of the great people who've come before us, and build something that could genuinely improve the world. I see it to be a modern, practical equivalent to how knowledge spreads in academia. In academia, your research is one small step beyond the great research that has come before you, that you were able to read. That work allowed you to push research forward. In open source, we can freely use what has come before us and push technology forward. And it allows us to do so in a way that doesn't compromise our freedoms.
Open source to me means trust. I know I can trust the software because I can go through the code myself and verify the lack of NSA.
Open source means community to me. I love that open source software and services connects a community of people, potentially from around the world, beyond monetary means. Open source is about realising that we all benefit when we can give back and share with one another, and that each of our stories and gifts are all intertwined. We can live an abundant life through extravagant giving, and that can happen through the open source community.
Open source means freedom, sharing knowledge and a group of people i.e. community coming together to solve a common problem. I think the world will be better with free and open source software. Open source communities are excellent examples of how a bunch of people can make a positive difference to the world.
Open source - это модель открытого взаимодействия людей. Основой взаимодействия является открытость и взаимоуважение, помощь участников. В основном OpenSource используется среди разработчиков программного обеспечения. При разработке ПО исходные коды программы и все нужные средства для сборки программы выкладываются в свободный доступ в сети. Любой человек может посмотреть, как программа устроена, исправить ошибки или добавить новую функциональность. Таким образом люди легко передают идеи, реализацию, улучшения и исправления ПО. OpenSource - это круто
Open Source bedeuted für mich Freiheit und Unabhängigkeit. Durch Open Source ist es möglich viel verschiedene Software nutzen zu können, so dass man nicht von einer einzigen Software abhängig ist. Außerdem ist es möglich bestehende Software um Funktionen zu erweitern und diese wiederum anderen zugänglich zu machen. Dadurch kann umfangreiche und großartige Software entstehen. Außerdem ist es möglich bereits vorhandenen Code zu studieren und daraus für eigene Projekte zu lernen. Open Source ist das Beste was Software passieren kann.
Open Source means to me the freedom of using software I can trust, software I can extend and software that is available for everybody.
It also stands for software that is built by people coming together from all over the world, sharing their knowledge with each other, no matter which country they come from, what god they believe in, or which political views they support.
Open Source means connecting people, starting dialogs and building things that nobody could build on his own. It gives people a voice that otherwise would not be heard.
At the end of the day, to me, Open Source means a small step in the right direction - not only for software.
Open Source, to me, means: welcome. Welcome to this code I wrote. Help yourself to bits you like or need. Help make it better for others. Help make it yours. Help make me better with your suggestions, changes or discussion. Use the code in any way you want, in ways I never thought of. And if the projects I created lives on without me, then open source has worked.
Open Source means freedom to make mistakes, learn, share, it's about community spirit!
It has helped me to become a better person, not just the coding aspect, but a lot of other factors, it has taught me to think, to accept criticisms, to advise, to be organized, to be disciplined, to laugh at yourself, to help each other without expecting, to grow!
Free and Open software is about sharing and caring ❤️ Same principles have made my life better.
It has helped me to realize myself, to realize the fact there are many humble people out there, who are down to Earth even after reaching the pinnacle of software development.
I'm what I am, beacuse of what you all are!
👍
Open Source, betekent voor mij de vrijheid om code te delen en verbeteren. Het staat voor software die die door iedereen kan worden bekeken, en zo nodig, verbeterd. Het helpt ontwikkelaars om zichzelf te verbeteren door te leren van de code van andere ontwikkelaars. Door te ontwikkelen aan open source code geef je iets weg, maar in ruil daarvoor krijg je zo veel kennis en ervaring terug, dat is onbetaalbaar. Daarnaast is het geweldig als mensen dankbaar gebruik maken met de code die je geschreven hebt.
Het feit dat open source software 'gratis' is te gebruiken, is in mijn optiek een mooie bijkomstigheid, het feit dat het 'open' en 'vrij' is, vind ik echter veel belangrijker. De hele wereld heeft de mogelijkheid om de software te verbeteren en om mogelijke fouten in de code op te lossen. Op deze manier wordt software commit voor commit een stukje mooier. 😃
Open source to me is developing something to your heart's content and publish it to the world with the bottom of your heart ❤️. Open source for me is also a way to make the world a better place just by the things you made(no matter how little they are!) and feeling the immense pleasure of contributing something to the outside world.
Open source is a part of me. 😇
Open source means that I can expand my knowledge outside of school and be part of global scale projects. I may not be making a big impact right now but with hard work and education I can do amazing things for the world.
Open source is like a glass of water to me, which never runs out of water and makes me thirstier each time that I drink from it.
I hope one day I see these, too:
- Open Source Goverment
- Open Source Law
- Open Source Life ➡ [If anybody wants to help me start this, please... contact me]
Open source means not reinventing the wheel again. Open source means collaborating so everyone can benefit from the work we do in our spare time. Open source means a community running a successful project without any incentives beyond doing a good job.
Open source to me means the opportunity to share an experience with others whom I've never met. To share in the crafting of something in which we all share a common belief. Its a common goal among others and a trust with people whom you most likely do not share moments of your life with. Its free knowledge and cultivates a community of sharing it for the sake of sharing knowledge ! Not only is the source open, but information, knowledge, communication, and opportunity follow. Open source is a way of life, a philosophy, a self declaring manifesto for the commitment to collaboration in all things information. It breeds the great and filters out the bad.
Open Source, to me, means that the community solves a complex problem, which cannot be solved by an individual. Solutions can then be reused in additonal attempts to solve an even bigger problem. Open source is the greatest invention to make people work together, to collaborate, to get to a goal quickly, to be human. It isn't just a big thing in software development. It is the next industrial revolution, the next big thing in social media, the next game changer. We all can use a bit more collaboration! Open Source makes it possible. What is it? In my opinion every goal we want to achieve!
Open source is important to me because it reminds me every day that the software I use is mine to modify; to improve to my tastes. My complaints about a software are partially directed to myself, since it is in my power to fix it.
With open source, I can give back to the world in a great manner. Implementing even a small feature for a large project sometimes gets you thank-yous from across the globe. This is a wonderful feeling, and it makes me want to get even more involved. With this symbiotic relation, I get to learn, develop, interact, and code, all the while being useful to the rest of the world. Open source is an undying philosophy that should be upheld for the days to come!
Open source to me means the ability to collaborate with different people to build tools that impact everyone using it at large. At the same time it means an opportunity to meet new and like minded people with a common goal and an opportunity to realize how working in the spare time can successfully impact the lives of millions of users. It gives me the ability to positively impact the world working with many people, making new friends and keep things transparent. A way to learn from new people, share existing knowledge and most of all grow. It feels great to know that those little lines of code that I write has in some manner or the other impacted the lives of so many people and open source which gives me the power to do that, thus makes me more responsible to build a stronger community and collaborate with more people. Open source is the best thing that could happen.
Open Source, to me, is a world of learning, of accelerated progress and ever renewed respect and appreciation for mankind's ability to mix creative ingenuity with selfless cooperation.
I have been dipping my toes into Open Source only a few months ago, drawn in by the wider Github community and the incredible work that it generates. And I am already convinced that this is where the future of technological progress lies. In all likelihood also that of education, scientific exploration and application; as well as social organization, in more ways than we can imagine today. Undoubtedly, the collective minds of Open Source thinkers will be able to bring its benefits and opportunities to areas of society which we may yet think of as forever closed to such innovation. I, for one, can't wait.
Open source is important to me because I want to help other developers create amazing things, and I want whatever aid they're willing to give me to create my own amazing things. Open source can mean many things, but the ideals remain the same: help your fellow web workers. Help them learn, help them build, help them grow. It's a community effort. Without community, open source wouldn't exist.
If I had to sum up what Free and Open Source software is about, I'd have to say that at its core, it is a hybrid between a gift economy, developmental collaboration, and academic experimentation. So many different projects have the capacity to serve as the atomic building blocks that other projects can use to create a greater whole, and many projects can build upon the work of each other for free. That is wonderful.
So many things are built upon Free and Open Source technology these days: operating systems, desktop computers, tablets, mobile devices, routers, servers, web applications, code frameworks, compilers, libraries, for starters. These are all phenomenons tied together as the result of people around the world wondering about a problem, scratching their own itches, and eventually coming together to make something bigger and better. It's wonderful, and I can only hope that many more of these kinds of projects will spring up, gain momentum, and work together in the future.
This is the kind of technology that enables people to do so much more than what their proprietary counterparts could ever provide.
Open source provides a way for humanity to learn, share, achieve, and progress together, rather than being at odds all the time. I love being able to share my knowledge with others in a way that doesn't require charges, and agreements, and red tape, every step of the way. I also love that at the same time my work is protected against self-serving types who would seek just to capitalize on it, and lock it away. It isn't the only way to publish work, but it is a choice that absolutely must be available.
As an extension of this, open source allows the populous — real people like me and you — to have more control over their destinies and understand how the tools they use work and what they are doing, rather than leaving everything in the hands of the governments, corporates and lawmakers. Who, let's face it, often haven't got our best interests at heart.
Some quotes that I hold dear, and I think are relevant:
Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitude.
Frederick Douglass, abolitionist.
Wait, what are you talking about, we decided!? My best interest?! How can you know what my best interest is?
Mike Muir, Suicidal Tendencies, "Institutionalized"
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world
Nelson Mandela (thanks Mariona, for this one!)
So forge your own destiny. Choose life. Choose open source
Aprendizagem, e evolução!
A comunicação(por fala, desenhos ou escrita) foi um marco na história da Humanidade, fazendo com que lições aprendidas e novas descobertas pudessem ser passadas para outras pessoas por gerações, e regiões diferentes! O universo Open Source proporciona isto, para soluções de problemas no desenvolvimento de software! Ou seja, ajuda a trazer mais evolução à toda a comunidade!
Open Source is a community; a chance to be heard; to be part of the game; it's an opportunity to expand the way I think; to think of things differently; It's a race; It's accepting constant change; it's a beautiful thing;
Open source means empowering people with three of the most important things in life: options, freedom and knowledge. Everyone should have the option to choose what they want, and decide whether or not to be out of commercial monopolies and private surveillance, having full control of his or her life. Also, Open Source Community it is the largest and best university in the world, where you can simply choose what you want to learn, what you want to do, how you want to do things, and even work with the most brightest minds in the world. The ones that want to be free.
Open source significa aprender e compartilhar conhecimento. É ajudar uma ideia crescer. Contrubuir para um futuro livre. Mas acima de tudo, contribuir para um projeto open source é acreditar nele, se sentir parte dele, pentercer a ele. Essas são as melhores coisas que eu posso dizer sobre o significado de open source.
Open source means to learn and share knowledge. It's help an idea to grow up. To contribute to a free future. But above all, to contribute to an open source project is to believe in it, to feel part of it, belonging to it. Those are the best things I can say about what open source means.
Open source means that the knowledge that we have can be accessible for everybody. It also means community and when we work as a group we can make the difference, we can make people grow and make a better enviroment for everybody.
"Open refers to a process that generates trust, permitting positive interdependence"
This definition, coined at the 2012 Open Source Think Tank in Paris, reflects and states my belief in openness. Combined with "source" as the basis and initial existence of things, I can arrive that open source is the start and star of things that need to work together, bridging both things and communities in a way that leads to better and more innovative approaches for all. Open sources allow us to understand, to our necessary level, while offering the ability to choose our involvement.
Open source is how we beta-test new ways of collaborating --- ways that, for the first time in history, might let everyone collaborate.
Open source means carving out a public zone within cyberspace in which the old rules of proprietary software no longer apply. It means having the potential to create good software which is free from artificial barriers and the coercive tendencies to try to gain power over how it is used and by whom. Open source means not being alienated from your own work and being able to harness a community of knowledge and build upon it over time.
Open Source is important to me because it reduces friction between software and its users. While it is computer science, there is art to a well designed API. Open Source means the consumer can have a more-level interaction with the producer, and both benefit from that. When the thoughtfulness and design of a system come together with the collaboration between producers and consumers, I've often seen the best results. Open Source supports that paradigm better than anything else I've seen to date.
We live in a shifted reality, where we have to keep up to both digital and physical worlds. We are more conscious of the data that surround us and the potential of the collective effort with an open channel for communication.
Contributing to Open Source will help us not only to cooperate collectively but also make products or projects succeed or at least improve quality and reliability. Even if a project is not pick up at the moment, having that source code online could help lots of people and maybe someday come back from another user.
爱自由，爱网络， 爱编程，爱KTV， 也爱开源，我不是文艺青年， 更不是谁的代言，我是码农， 我代表我自己， 与你一样，支持开源事业。
开源项目使我们有机会与世界级编程高手学习、交流；开源项目引领IT技术的发展趋势； 开源项目极大的加快了技术的发展速度；开源项目使的我们个人改变世界的能力更加强大。 开源产品更加值得信赖，因为你能看到每一行代码。
我是一个开发者，开源软件对我来说代表着自由，公开，奉献和个性化。自由是我可以选择我所需要 的功能，去掉我不需要的部分。公开表示我可以很明确的知道软件会对我做些什么，是否会推送广告， 是否会记录我的信息。奉献是我在开发过程中曾经无数次借鉴开源项目的经验，一次次给我解决问题 的灵感，甚至引用一部分开源软件的代码。个性化代表着我可以通过开源软件得到独属于我的独一无 二的应用，我可以定制我喜欢的颜色，我想要的界面，甚至简化操作过程，这些只需要简单的修改开 源的代码就可以实现。总之，感谢所有的开源软件贡献者，谢谢。
Open source means to me a life style. When you understand it and you keep sharing knowledge, editing with your own rules, contributing with an amazing open and incredible community and improving a lot of things that trust on open source too it becomes something you can't stop, It starts to be a feeling that grows everyday. Open source has changed my life and probably other lives too, it makes you change your mind, start to think higher, and give the opportunity to everybody transmit and make ideas awesome.
Enquanto eu era apenas uma usuária de Open Source softwares o sentimento que sempre tive era que eu estava escolhendo pelo correto e pelo melhor, que estava utilizando algo feito com muita dedicação por pessoas que acreditam em um mundo de colaboração e cooperação. Hoje criadora e mantenedora de um pequeno e simples software Open Source, sinto de verdade o que é ter verdadeira paixão por criar soluções para ajudar as pessoas, aprender com a colaboração de pessoas desconhecidas, instigar o interesse pela colaboração em pessoas que querem ver o projeto crescer... Tudo isso realmente é impagável, principalmente o sentimento de colaborar para um mundo melhor.
I am Tristan B. Kildaire or otherwise known as Deavmi. I founded an organisation called Crowbar, we make Free Software. I find that freedom of knowledge is important and the sharing of it, the publicness of it is important but also crediting those of which you gained the knowledge from. This is a beautiful thing, I use GNU/Linux, I run Trisquel GNU/Linux. I use Git.
Freedom and Knowledge are two very beautiful things. ~ Deavmi
Where do I start? The ability to make changes and enhancements to any application I use is awesome: it means I have the freedom implement new features and fix annoying things in my favourite software. Also, seeing your work go live in software you use is amazing! There's also the opportunity to learn new things and meet new people - I learned a lot from open source communities, and met some of my best friends through them. It can also give you an additional challenge to solve a problem you have never run across before.
Nothing short of deep magic.
from the jargon file definition:
deep magic: [poss. from C.S. Lewis's `Narnia' books.] n. An
awesomely arcane technique central to a program or system, esp. one
not generally published and available to hackers at large (compare
{black art}); one which could only have been composed by a true
{wizard}. Compiler optimization techniques and many aspects of
{OS} design used to be {deep magic}; many techniques in
cryptography, signal processing, graphics, and AI still are.
Compare {heavy wizardry}. Esp. found in comments of the form
"Deep magic begins here...".The open source community is basically a 24-7 alchemy convention. Unlike most of History, our practice is real and very likely defining the computing infrastructure of tomorrow.
Alchemy is an influential tradition whose practitioners have, from antiquity,
claimed it to be the precursor to profound powers. The defining objectives of
alchemy are varied but historically have typically included one or more of the
following goals: the creation of the fabled 'philosophers stone'; the ability to
transmute base metals into the noble metals (gold or silver);
and development of an elixir of life, which would confer youth and longevity.to me, open source is when various performers across a diversity of tactics all coordinate in dancing together for common benefit. this is only possible through each performer sensing what their collaborators are doing, with being able to remix the moves done by others before them, and by having the opportunity to invite nearby onlookers to join who may not realize the unique value they can bring to the dance. when we all network together, each with our own personal skills, perspectives, motivations, and approaches, joined by a common thread of free and open systems we can participate in and benefit from, we have the power to achieve anything.
Open source é uma filosofia de vida. O gosto de poder contribuir com algo que alguém já teve o trabalho de começar é imensurável. Melhor ainda quando outros contribuem para o trabalho que você mesmo criou. Cada indivíduo das comunidades de desenvolvimento funciona taxonomicamente como uma pequena formiga desempenhando o seu papel em prol de construir uma comunidade melhor e com qualidade, e sem sua contribuição a comunidade não é a mesma. O altruísmo de pegar o código junto com as issues e tentar resolver. Open source é a principal maneira de evolução no desenvolvimento de código e da humanidade, por que não?!
Für mich ist Open Source der kreativste und freiste Weg, mich als Entwickler auszudrücken. Nur durch freien Quellcode werden auch die Gedanken und das Ergebnis wirklich frei, offen und - letztendlich - glaubwürdig. Freie Software eliminiert alle Grenzen zwischen Menschen, erlaubt es uns gemeinsam zu basteln und zu erschaffen, wie wir es uns wünschen - und hoffentlich so gut wir können. Durch die inherente Motivation des Aus-Sich-Selbst-Heraus-Schaffens wird Software besser, werden kreative Energien freigesetzt und Gemeinsamkeit geschaffen. Ob das Ziel Selbstzweck, Tatendrang, Geschäfts- oder Gemeinwohl ist, jedes Programm profitiert von offenem Quellcode. Es wird Zeit für uns zu erkennen, dass Komplexität nur durch Kooperation handhabbar ist.
For me Open Source represents the power of collaboration. Lots and lots of small contributions bubble up something that's useful. Open source is fun and it works. It gives me control over the software I use.
The adrenaline rush when your code finally starts working and your PR is merged, thats priceless. The discussions are really productive and there's a lot that I learn from others. This helps me expand my horizons while doing something I really love, to code. It also gives me a unique satifaction to know my code would help millions if not more. Thats what keeps me ticking!
Open source means that someone from Australia can make a Pull Request to help me overcome a problem. And then I can make a Pull Request to someone from South Korea to help him overcome a problem. And the world suddenly becomes a neighborhood and it's something beautiful. Maybe, just maybe, one day this is how we will run our Governments or write our Laws. Sharing knowledge, having transparency, using the hivemind to solve problems.
Open source to me is all about the community and the discussions which are a means for collective learning. It is a better learning medium than even a classroom because you can talk and learn from experts in their own fields. Open source projects are a living, breathing entity constantly being shaped and molded by each contributor as they addd a little bit of themselves into the project.
Open source is important to me because it is where I learn a lot of stuff. I learn every day regarding something from open source. I basically learnt how to develop clean code from open source. Now I am learning on how to contribute back to open source. What I actually felt is the growth of a technical field can be calculated from it's open source. The only way to show gratitude is to contribute back, from where it all started.
Open source is a place where we can learn about team work. Its all about learning together in a community. Finally, I have learnt how to contribute to open source, a place from where I learnt so many things. It encourages me to share my knowledge and also to learn from others.
Open Source provides the possibility to build software as required by the community for the purpose of community and most importantly by the community. It is similar to being democratic in software development. Open Source provides the possibility of building an optimal software by allowing the discussion of the pros and cons based on the community's voice. It allows every person to share their knowledge and provide a platform to learn from many others. It goes with the famous quote of Helen Keller, "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much". The greatest thing about Open Source is everyone contributes, regardless of the credit just to make something good. On a lighter side, the joy of work and happiness I get whenever my contributions to Open Source discussions, bugs and feature development gets accepted is not comparable to anything in the world. In the same way the knowledge and information which I get when when it gets rejected for certain reason is also enormous. It's like everything I do, whether correct or wrong, it makes me better.
Open source means to me to code and contribute on projects all over the world or just on the local communities. It means to be taken seriously even without a masters degree. I believe in open source and open data and GitHub means to me, that there's a place for all this amazing products and projects we use EVERYDAY!
Cuando oí a los capitalistas decir que el código abierto era comunista, y luego oí a los comunistas decir que el código abierto era capitalista, supe inmediatamente que estaba en el camino correcto.
El código abierto significa tener las mismas reglas de juego, donde la gente compite por talento y no por secuestrar al cliente con su código fuente. Para las empresas significa que van a reducir el riesgo de depender de un único proveedor, mientras que para los individuos significa la oportunidad de competir con grandes empresas para ofrecer sus servicios.
El código abierto me ha permitido usar OS/2 Warp hasta los días actuales (2023), y me permitirá seguir usándolo.