{"id":4586,"date":"2011-06-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/open-source-software\/"},"modified":"2016-12-28T17:07:42","modified_gmt":"2016-12-28T17:07:42","slug":"open-source-software","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5602\/open-source-software-oss","title":{"rendered":"Open-Source Software"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_open-source_software_mean\">What Does Open-Source Software Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Open-source software (OSS) is software that is distributed with source code that may be read or modified by users.<\/p>\n<p>The OSS community generally agrees that open-source software should meet the following criteria:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The program must be freely distributed<\/li>\n<li>Source code must be included with the program<\/li>\n<li>Anyone must be able to modify the source code<\/li>\n<li>Modified versions of the source code may be redistributed<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As well, an open-source software license must not require the exclusion of, or interfere with, the operation of other software.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_open-source_software\">Techopedia Explains Open-Source Software<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Unlike traditional software distributed in an unchangeable compiled format, open-source software is delivered with both compiled and non-compiled formats, allowing open code modification. In traditional software licenses, this privilege would be reserved for copyright holders.<\/p>\n<p>Not all software developers favor the use of open-source software, but many have accepted it because it allows for quicker repair of software issues and may ultimately lead to higher quality applications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Open-Source Software Mean? Open-source software (OSS) is software that is distributed with source code that may be read or modified by users. The OSS community generally agrees that open-source software should meet the following criteria: The program must be freely distributed Source code must be included with the program Anyone must be able [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[225,230,239],"class_list":["post-4586","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-cloud-native-development","definitioncat-privacy-and-compliance","definitioncat-productivity-software"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is Open-Source Software (OSS)? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Open-Source Software and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Open-Source Software\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Open-Source Software and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5602\/open-source-software-oss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-12-28T17:07:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5602\/open-source-software-oss#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5602\/open-source-software-oss\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Open-Source Software\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-21T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-12-28T17:07:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5602\/open-source-software-oss\"},\"wordCount\":162,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5602\/open-source-software-oss#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5602\/open-source-software-oss\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5602\/open-source-software-oss\",\"name\":\"What is Open-Source Software (OSS)? 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