The Economics of Technology: Open Source Software (OSS)

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Introduction
Over the past few years, there has been a surge of interest in Open Source Software (OSS) development. Interest in this process, which involves software developers at many different locations and organizations sharing code to develop and refine software programs. You must be wondering what an Open Source Software (OSS) is. Open source software is a computer software with its source code made available and licensed with a license in which the copyright holder provides the rights to study, change and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose. Open source software is usually developed in a public, collaborative manner. Source code is the part of software that most computer users don't ever see; it's the code computer programmers can use to change how a piece of software works. Programmers who have access to a computer program's source code can improve that program by adding features to it or fixing parts that don't always work correctly.
A Brief History of Open Source Software
There is a tradition of sharing and cooperation in software development. But in rec...

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