Mindset

To understand open source development one must understand how open source developers think and work.This section mostly points to worthwhile reading material for a rainy weekend (unless otherwise noted).

Open source has a strong relation to science and research. Many institutions use and create, but also research open source software. Explore this world using Google Scholar or Microsoft Academic Search. See, e.g. Amazon for printed publications.

What is Open Source?

Definition

The OSI defines open source as software following a set of criteria that ensure free distribution, extendibility, and non-discrimination. The full criteria are online and the annotated version is a highly recommended read. The minimal excerpt of the definition by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is as follows.

“Free software” means software that respects users' freedom and community. Roughly, it means that the users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. Thus, “free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. (source)

Read the full definition and make up your own mind about the FSF "campaign". Is nonfree software really "unethical"? How do FSF and OSI relate to each other? You can find an optional read about the controversy defining what open source software is here and here.

History

There are plenty of online descriptions of the history of open source. We recommend the following pages (roughly 1 hour of reading):

Terms "free", "libre" and "open source"

Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of free as in free speech, not as in free beer. Richard Stallmann

"Free software", "libre software" and "open source software" have slightly different meanings. These distinctions are important for the history and understanding of "somehow publicly available software".

Wikipedia has a summary of the naming, fun quotes about the unfortunate acronym FLOSS, as well as a whole page discussing the ambiguity of "free".

When we say open source software, we mean "free and libre open source software". We might use the acronym FOSS, but trust you to understand the ambiguity of the English word "free".

Extended reading:

Hacking

The term "hacking" or "hackers", i.e. people who hack, is part of mainstream culture today. In open source communities, the term "hacking" has diverse meanings, some of them very positive. The same skill set is required for "cracking" illegaly into secure systems and for solving a very hard informatics problem creatively. So don't worry if someone talks about a "good hack"!

For a full history of the term and related concepts such as "white/black hat", "cracking", or "hacker ethic", see Appendix A of Free as in Freedom (2.0): Richard Stallmann and the Free Software Revolution and, as always, Wikipedia on "Hacker" or on "Hackerspace" (a.k.a hacklab, hackspace or makerspace).

What is Code?

To a large extent, open source developers are no different from any other software developers. A must read for understanding the "software world" (not only open source) and the people living and working in it, is "What is Code?" by Paul Ford for Bloomberg Businessweek. Josh Tyrangiel's introduction states:

Software has been around since the 1940s. Which means that people have been faking their way through meetings about software, and the code that builds it, for generations. [...] a single story devoted to demystifying code and the culture of the people who make it.

Open Souce (Hardware)

While this book is concerned with software, (a) "Open source" also exists without software, and (b) if your research involves creation of hardware as well, there's a whole other world out there!

Extended reading:

The extra mile

Get into the culture of software developers and open source enthusiasts and try any combination of the following.