A slightly more well-intentioned and motivated means of providing people with affordable, available software is the movement to make free and open source software available. Open source software is simply software which is freely distributed, and for which the source code is open and able to be modified by users as they so choose. Free and open source software challenges our preconceptions about how software is used, produced and distributed. The software industry today generates yearly revenues in excess of US$300 billion. [Free and open source software] is software that has made its source code free and allows—perhaps even motivates—users to change the source code and redistribute the derivative software. (Free)

The beauty of free and open source software is that it not only helps people to gain access to the software that they need, but they also are able to continue their own learning and provide themselves with skills that may help them later on in their lives as they enter the job market (Aquarius). With software programming experience, they can not only solve any problems which they may encounter with the software itself, but they can also further their own technological prowess. Liberating software's source code would be a huge step in itself; however, free and open source software offers users the same opportunities and freedoms that the original programmers have.

Free and open source software is, essentially, sustainable development in the sense that it is a technology that local people can understand, maintain, and adapt to their needs (Free). In fact, there are some who feel so passionately about the movement that they maintain that the “use of [non-free and open source software] is not true development, because the users are helplessly and permanently dependent on a single developer, who alone can fix or change it. In addition, closed software creates a user only community, preventing users from becoming developers of software” (Free). The benefits and advantages of the use of free and open source software are, in fact, so great that it is highly probably that increased use of it would greatly aid in overcoming some of the digital barriers regarding the digital divide.

One such example is that of the GNU Project. Pronounced “guh-noo,” GNU is a recursive acronym that stands for “GNU's Not UNIX.” Launched in 1984, the GNU Project aims to “develop a complete UNIX like operating system which is free software” (GNU). By virtue of the fact that it is free, many people who are unable to afford operating systems like Windows are able to download the GNU operating system. Even better, since it is open source, they are able to adapt the operating system to meet their needs. According to the GNU Program, “variants of the GNU operating system, which use the kernel Linux, are now widely used; though these systems are often referred to as ‘Linux,' they are m ore accurately called GNU/Linux systems.” Although one many not give much thought to the fact that the operating system goes by many names, it is interesting to think that many of these names were probably given to resultant systems that were modified by users. This indicates that there is a demand and a use for free and open source software.

However, the drawback to free and open source software lies in the fact that the goal of every company, software and non-software alike, is to profit. By its very nature, free and open source software does not offer a means for profit, nor does it provide programmers with much incentive to participate, other than the fact that it is for a noble cause. In the case of the GNU operating system, it is principally sponsored by an organization called the Free Software Foundation (FSF). FSF does not receive much funding from grant-making foundations or organizations; rather, it relies heavily on individual contributions (GNU). Hence, it is understandable that it has taken such a long time since the program's inception for it to gain the status that it has so recently obtained. It would at least be a step in the right direction if software were offered at reduced costs to mass markets in poorer regions. However, low-cost mass marketing is only effective when there is a mass market. It is hard to imagine niche products—in this case, software such as Photoshop, or even more specialized software—going open source, because high costs are needed to profit from such products.

Software availability and accessibility has also been tackled by means of localization of software. This simply refers to the modification of software in order to make it relevant and useful to the residents of a particular region or area. This could include anything from translation to different languages and regional dialects to changing content to be more locally relevant and meaningful. This sounds very appealing in theory, as it makes available a much larger array of potential buyers. However, “localization is—believe it or not—very expensive. Hence, software producers will have to sell a lot of software to pay for it. For smaller countries with smaller markets this means that for many software products localization may not be worth it” (Mayer-Schoenberger). While this is true, it is possible that a combination of localization with open sourcing could provide exactly the solution that is needed.