"Open source" -- the philosophy behind it as well as the 
programs themselves -- is causing a big change in culture 
around the world.  So, what the heck is it?


> I understand "open source" is an independent computer language, 
> which can be used in a wide range of computing purpose.
> If so, I still don't know, how does it function without having 
> someone who owns it.

Good question!  :)
The answer is going to get a little long. Because maybe i'm
just not smart enough to make it short.  Sorry. 

OK, first - open source isn't a computer language. It's a word
for a way of developing computer things, like software.

The ideas is, that a license goes with it that says that anybody
can see the source code (the programming language itself) of
the program or whatever.  The "source code" is "open" to everyone.

A computer language can be open source (perl and php are examples. 
or a database (mysql). or a user program (Open Office). or a server 
program (apache web server).

Some writers are releasing their books "open source" - they
publish them on a website, and anyone can download them
and do whatever they want with them.  (The book, program,
whatever, can still be "copyrighted" - that is, part of the
license can be that you have to give the original author
credit for the work.)

The way it used to be, computer companies like Microsoft made 
their money by "hiding" their source code. So you *have* to buy 
the program from them in order to use it. Part of what you buy
is agreeing to a license, that says you won't share the program.
If there's something wrong with the program, or you would like 
a new feature, only the company that wrote it can change it, 
because they are the only ones that have the original code. 

The idea of "open source", is that you write it so that anyone
can see the source code. You can still sell it, no problem.
But the license that goes with it says that you *have* to 
share the program! And allow anyone else to see the source
code also.

So how to people make money if anyone can get the program?
OK - i can't completely say how people make money from 
open source, because i'm not a businessperson at all myself.  
But here's my understanding:

The short answer is "service".

1. You sell training, support, special setups for the programs.  
   For instance, i use the mysql database which is open source and 
   free of cost. The company that makes the database, also makes
   and sells special versions and setups to big companies 
   for big database applications that would be way too complicated 
   for me to even try.


Not everyone *wants* to see the source code, or 
change the program, or figure out which version is the best
version, or how to set it up. In fact, probably most of us don't 
want to do that, right? We just want to use the darn program!
2. You sell copies of the program, all set up to run easily.
   For instance, just this week, i bought CDs of several 
   open source operating systems.  They are all free to download.
   But much easier to just buy the CDs, cheap price, no hassle.

3. Another way to make money is that wonderful thing, advertising.
   You sell advertising on your free service.

4. You build a closed-source, money-making business on top of
   an open source technology.  Examples:
   - ISPs (internet service providers)
   - All Micro$ofts internet programs.
   - IBM, HP, and other big companies are now selling
     computers with linux on them, selling programs 
     that are written with open-source languages, etc.


> If so, I still don't know, how is function without having
> someone who own it.

Hmm - i guess the above, was "functions" in the sense of, functioning
in the big world, how do people make money from it.  Another
meaning would be, how does software get developed, and especially,
*good* software, if nobody owns it?  That i know more about  :)
Usually, someone owns it, in the sense of takes responsibility
for it, and then directs the other programmers who are working
on it.  Like Linus Torvalds, owns and oversees linux. In fact,
Linux and his linux were the first one, and he kind of grew
this development model on his own. Everybody says it shouldn't
work - but in practice it seems to work great.


You may not realise this -- 
Any time you do *anything* on the internet, you are using open source:

1. The internet itself runs on technologies (which i can
  explain if you are interested  :)  that are all open. 
  They have to be -- the engineers have to know all the code 
  in order to know how to get all the different computers 
  and other hardware to talk to each other.  

Also - 60% of websites are running on an open-source operating system 
(linux) with an open-source web server program (apache). 
All mail goes through an open-source mail program, sendmail or qmail.

and it goes on like that!  :)

I hope this makes sense. 

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