OPEN-SOURCE Definition & Meaning

open-source

[ oh-puhn-sawrs, -sohrs ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

adjective

Computers. pertaining to or denoting software whose source code is available free of charge to the public to use, copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute.
pertaining to or denoting a product or system whose origins, formula, design, etc., are freely accessible to the public.

open source

noun

1. intellectual property, esp computer source code, that is made freely available to the general public by its creators
2. ( as modifier ) Compare closed source
  open source software

open-source

Relating to source code that is available to the public without charge. Open-source code is often enhanced, improved, and adapted for specific purposes by interested programmers, with the revised versions of the code are made available to the public. For example, most of the code in the Linux operating system is open-source.

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of open-source¹

First recorded in 1960–65

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Example Sentences

The decade of the 2010s was a time of burgeoning “maker” culture elsewhere, with 3D printers and open-source software bringing design and production within the reach of anyone.

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“Its encryption protocol, the open-source Signal Protocol, is widely regarded as the gold standard in secure messaging and is even used by WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger for certain chats,” he said.

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The app is open-source, meaning its code is available for independent experts to scour for vulnerabilities.

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He was bragging, of course, on an insecure network that according to what I have read uses “open-source privacy technology.”

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Thierer noted China’s surprising success with low-cost, decentralized open-source AI systems — a strategy that contrasts sharply with U.S. reliance on proprietary models requiring massive computational resources and budgets.

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