http://www.webimpakt.com/blog/open-source-software.html Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:37:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 http://www.webimpakt.com/blog/open-source-software.html#comment-294 Tim Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:55:58 +0000 http://www.webimpakt.com/blog/software-design/open-source-software/#comment-294 Open source software can be a tricky adventure, especially for companies looking to "build" upon open source code. Most open source code is licensed under the GNU. The GNU serves to keep open source code free even AFTER light or heavy modifications to the original source code. This means a company that builds proprietary components, workflows or logic within an open source code base must freely offer those modifications to the community. This may be a drawback for some companies. For example, any company that Web Impakt has used OSCommerce for and has made changes to the OSCommerce source code to support said company, I can legally request a copy of that company's source code for OSCommerce....yikes Open source software can be a tricky adventure, especially for companies looking to “build” upon open source code. Most open source code is licensed under the GNU. The GNU serves to keep open source code free even AFTER light or heavy modifications to the original source code. This means a company that builds proprietary components, workflows or logic within an open source code base must freely offer those modifications to the community. This may be a drawback for some companies. For example, any company that Web Impakt has used OSCommerce for and has made changes to the OSCommerce source code to support said company, I can legally request a copy of that company’s source code for OSCommerce….yikes

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