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Open-source software

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People participating in a game development workshop in 2015, working together to create games.

What is Open-Source Software?

Open-source software is a special kind of computer software. Anyone can use it, change it, and share it with others. This is because the person who owns the copyright lets people do these things using a special license. You can see how the software works, make it better, or share your improvements.

People can work together to build open-source software. Anyone with the skills can join and help. This makes the software strong and trusted because others can see and check the source code.

Why People Like It

Using open-source software can save money. It helps big companies and even smaller ones. Without it, they would need to spend more to create their own software.

If you know how to use a computer well, you can use open-source code to solve problems that matter to you. You can also share your changes with others, which helps everyone.

How It Works

The Open Source Initiative has a standard way to decide if a software license is open source. They use The Open Source Definition, which was created using ideas from the Debian Free Software Guidelines.

Open-source software lets anyone use, change, and share the software easily. This helps the software improve quickly because many people can work on it together.

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This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Open-source software, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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