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open source
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philosophy, legal A method and philosophy for software
licensing and distribution designed to encourage use and
improvement of software written by volunteers by ensuring that
anyone can copy the source code and modify it freely.
The term "open source" is now more widely used than the
earlier term "free software" (promoted by the Free SoftwareFoundation) but has broadly the same meaning - free of
distribution restrictions, not necessarily free of charge.
There are various open source licenses available.
Programmers can choose an appropriate license to use when
distributing their programs.