The Innovations of Open Source

Open source has given us many innovations. This article provides an overview of the most important innovations and illustrates the impact that open source is having on the software industry and beyond. The main innovations of open source can be grouped into four categories: legal, process, tool, and business models. Probably the best known innovations are open source licenses, which also define the concept. Software becomes open source if users receive it under an open source license. Discusses each of these categories in detail and explains their significance for open source development.