Open-source software
software licensed to ensure source code usage rights For a broader coverage of this topic, see Open-source software movement. Open-source software shares similarities with Free Software and is now part of the broader term Free and open-source software A screenshot of Linux Mint running the Xfce desktop environment, Mozilla Firefox browsing Wikipedia powered by MediaWiki, a calculator program, the built in calendar, Vim, GIMP, and the VLC media player, all of which are open-source software. Open-source software ( OSS ) is a type of computer software in which source code is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose. [1] Open-source software may be developed in a collaborative public manner. According to scientists who have studied it, open-source software is a prominent example of open collaboration. [2] The term is often written without a hyphen as "op