Open Source Software

Open source software is free for everyone to use. Anyone can look at the code and see how it works. People around the world work together to make it better. Many popular programs are open source.

How Open Source Works

Open source means the recipe for the software is shared. Anyone can read the code that makes it work. If someone finds a bug, they can fix it themselves. People volunteer to improve the software for free. Thousands of people can work on one project together.

Open Source You Might Know

The Firefox web browser is open source. Android, the phone operating system, is based on open source code. Wikipedia runs on open source software too. Linux is a free operating system used by many computers. Even some video games share their code for others to use.

Fun Facts

• Linux, a free open source operating system, runs most of the world's servers.
• Over 100 million people use Firefox, which is built by volunteers.
• The Android operating system is based on the open source Linux system.

Did You Know?

Most of the internet runs on open source software. The servers, databases, and tools that power your favorite websites are often free and open source!