What is Open Source?

Wikipedia, Firefox, OpenSSL - the phrase “Open Source” brings to mind various large-scale projects that I use on a daily basis. The scale of these projects are huge; my bet is that anyone who has ever used the internet has also used an open source project.

The Advantages of open source projects are abundant: consumers can download the software for free, developers can fork the open source project, and competitors can work together rather than against. Problems with it, however, are just as apparent: security issues can occur when unauthorized users contribute code, a lack of organization in the codebase, and no customer support.

Registering for a class in open source development will, I hope, place me in the deep end of the open source world. As an upcoming software engineer, I don’t want to be naive to the large world of open source development that exists. It would also be great to pay back and contribute to the projects that have helped me so much throughout my life.

Open Source Projects

• Chromium

  I use Google Chrome, every, single, day. Chromium is the open source project that Google Chrome is built off of. Learn more.

• Swift

  Apple’s open source general-purpose programming language was the first coding language that I ever looked at. It is used primarily for app development for IOS. Learn more.

• Python

  Sticking along the lines of programming languages, Python is my favorite programming language to write in. It is my go-to language of choice for interviews, personal scripts, and everything else. Python community - thank you. Learn more.

• Jet Brains

  The best IDEs out there (controversial, I know). I am currently writing this on one of their projects. PyCharm, IntelliJ, etc. are some to name a few. Learn more.