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Open Source software is a new concept to many people, but it has in fact
been around for a couple of decades. Originally, university faculty and
students would share their work, and through collaberation build and improve
the software needed for their research.
The Internet itself was developed mainly on open source platforms, and even
today, a significant portion of the Internet infrastructure still uses open
source implementations.
You have probably used open source software already, and not even realized it.
The majority of the websites on the Internet (including this one) are served
using open source webservers and platforms. Many commercial products, such as
firewalls and voice mail systems, are running open source software.
Here, we try to present an overview of the
who,
what,
and
why
of Open Source Software.
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