Most of us have heard about the word "Open Source" but not everyone understands it completely. Let’s start with this. You brought yourself a pair of Shoes worth 500 Dollars from a shop. Felt great? You must be after all you got the coolest stuff in the town. Now you wore it on your girlfriend birthday or on some party who loves your sporty look and appreciate the brand you are wearing. Then what happened is you got stumble upon something and the front sole has come out. Now what to do. It’s simple. Hardly spend 15 to 20 Dollars and get it repaired from any cobbler in the town.
But here is the catch now. What if you have a restriction that you can get it repaired only from that branded shop from which you have brought those shoes with no less then 100 dollars. Doesn't make sense. You have got the shoes, you paid for it. So they are yours now.
Why they are suppose to impose such a thing on you.
Well, my dear friends the proprietary software companies are doing the same thing. Once we have brought the software its our choice to do what ever we want to do with that. Then why we have to always go back to them in case of any update, patch or any single error solution. Answer is: we don't have the source code.
But if we see through open mind then we should be given the source code, may be at a higher price with the software we are buying, so that we can get it to any concerned person who can modify, customize, update in the way we want it. We can go back to the maker company by our own choice if we feel that they are giving us the best solution at the best price. But i am sorry they are not doing that. That’s why we are taken for granted.
The whole creativity, innovation dies there as few minds work to find the solution. But what if we have the most beautiful minds of this world working on that. Then you can always get the best solution. The solution of your choice at your price. Even you can modify it by your own. The concept of Open Source can change the face of the world we are living in.
And this World will be a more creative and beautiful place.