When I hear the term “open source,” I think of something that anyone can modify and distribute because it is publicly accessible. I also think about the open source licenses placed on the product to make it open source since just because a software has its source code online doesn’t necessarily make it open source. There are many advantages to open source. Open source software is often cheaper and has a longer lifespan than its proprietary peers because it relies on contributions from communities rather than a single company or author. A major disadvantage of open source is that it could be used for malicious purposes if it falls into the wrong person’s hands because the author of the product allows anyone to modify and distribute their product. I decided to register for a class about open source software development because I wanted familiarize myself with the idea of collaborating on a large scale project with a community.

Open Source Projects

Four open source projects that I regularly use are Notepad++, Brackets, FreeCodeCamp, and 7zip. Notepad++ is easily my favorite text editor for most things. It’s easy to use with its clean interface, has syntax highlighting, and is compatible with a number of file extensions. Brackets is another great editor, but I use it only for web based projects because it allows one to see their edits in real time with its built-in preview feature. FreeCodeCamp is my go-to source for learning about a new technology. Its YouTube channel features hours of content on all sorts of programming languages, and it’s just a great, free alternative to paid websites like Udacity and Udemy. Lastly, 7-Zip is a file archiver tool that I use on my PC to compress and extract files since WinRaR isn’t free.