``The basic idea behind open source is very simple. When programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software evolves. People improve it, people adapt it, people fix bugs. And this can happen at a speed that, if one is used to the slow pace of conventional software development, seems astonishing.
We in the open source community have learned that this rapid evolutionary process produces better software than the traditional closed model, in which only a very few programmers can see the source and everybody else must blindly use an opaque block of bits.'' From the OpenSource Initiative (OSI)[3]OSS is not a method for getting rich--although some people have used OSS to make quite a bit of money, that is atypical. OSS is a democratization of software and a way to move software development forward rapidly, robustly, with a public oversight. In an increasingly connected world, OSS is one way for people to gain more control over their electronic environment and therefore over their society.
OSS includes two notable components not commonly found in the traditional proprietary software model: