Different amounts of customizability and modularity

As told before, SG sees developers in users. Following the movement that ‘rebels’ started in a distant planet Earth and following the guidelines they had set for building OSS, SG still continues its excellence in building better and better stuff for everyone.
[As Wikipedia puts it…]

The free and open source software movement demands the following four freedoms:

Freedom 0: The freedom to run the program for any purpose.
Freedom 1: The freedom to study and modify the program.
Freedom 2: The freedom to copy the program so you can help your neighbor.
Freedom 3: The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits.
However, one thing all are agreed on is that Open Source software is never designed to prevent users from doing things they might legitimately want to do.]

As you see in the very first point itself, it is legal to use RythmBox for creating inter-corporate-ballistic-missiles all targeted at Microsuck’s base situated inside a structure shielded with a closed source copyright.
It is also legal to study DOOM (the game) to create vaccination for AIDS and solve an international problem.

Plus, you can also copy along all your software to your neighbors who can give it to their neighbors, who can give it to... (ah, forget it, you get the chain, don’t you?)
And also, you can even teach the public to create inter-corporate-ballistic-missiles using their copy of RythmBox and even write a Do-it-yourself thesis on it… ;)
This is what is cool about OSS, it never stops you from doing what you might want to do. Such as creating software that would automatically hack systems running on “Short-Antler” using Firefox, or even better, Azureus? (we know the joke has gone staled up by getting repetitive!)

Different attitude towards users & developers alike…

Not far away, somewhere in the vast inter-galactic space, a mongrel comes up with an interesting addition that could perhaps revolutionize the way we surf or browse the net. He came up with a new sort of inputting technique called the Gesture technique. Based on your emotions, expressions and body language or gesture, the browser plays SIMS 2 with you to keep your mood levels under the coded limits. This is done through neural wires connected directly with the brain from the computer, along with temperature sensors, movement detectors and processors. The mongrel even builds portable hardware for it. He knows his idea would be a revolution. All it needs is acceptance…
Meanwhile at Microsucks Headquarters, two dorks detect a significant burst of ideas in space. Their GPS or Galactic Positioning System shows a big huge Orange colored dot situated not very far away. The Orange color signified that the idea was a promising one. Microsucks wanted that at any cost what so ever.
After contacting the mongrel, they discover that it was the problem with their sensor and they thought of it to be an insignificant trivial thought. The mongrel intended to build such an application for one of the galaxy’s largest used browser, Internet Wanderer (IW). But to his sigh, he couldn’t. He couldn’t build add-ons for it unless and until Microsucks gives him the rights for it.

Disappointed, the mongrel went in a hunt for the source code of an upcoming popular browser, Flamewolf. Flamewolf and IW had just one significant difference, IW was not open source. It would only take a bunch of attractive features for it to out throw IW.
So, the moral of this story being, Open Source software firms have a totally different attitude towards the user. It believes in a very popular one-liner that says,
“Every good work of software starts by scratching a developer's personal itch.”
It is a very true statement when we consider it from humanitarian perspectives as well. A person works better in what he is interested in. At Microsucks, the employees worked to meet guidelines and criteria of the software specs unlike SourceGorge, where developers seriously worked to provide quality, user appeal and total freedom.
Good programmers know what to write. Great ones know what to rewrite
(and reuse).
Keeping this in mind, there are vast libraries providing Open Source utilities and scripts, which the OSS professionals can use, reuse and recycle to save lots of development time and create software at a good pace. This perhaps highlights the fact that release cycles in Open Source are generally more frequent.

More on Open Source Software

Better for Coders

Open source software development is quite different from conventional closed source software development. Closed source software companies for example, let’s assume a fictional company by the name Microsucks, which follows a closed source approach to development and SourceGorge, which follows, ahem, the OSS law…
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Better for Users

It had been a long time since the employees of Microsucks started a mutiny against its own company due to severe dissatisfaction after the development department came under a new guy by the name Gay Ozzie, who preached things which (you might guess out by reading his name!) had caused severe unrest in Microsucks.
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Faster development

Oops, we mentioned a line about this in the previous section itself. Anyway, the mongrel finally manages to create his brainchild. He uploaded a downloadable and easy-to-install version of his extension on the Mongrella Flamewolf website. Within a span of about 30 nanoseconds, the new extension hits nearly 2,486,546 downloads backed by tons of comments and praises about the new idea. The mongrel thinks, “Insignificant and trivial idea, eh?”
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Future of Open Source

So where does it all end? How exactly will open source shape our lives leading us to a better tomorrow? It is for certain that with this level of growth and progress, we expect to see open source as the driving force of the software industry in the next few years.
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Is Open Source a thing of the future?

No; Not at all. That’s as bad as saying we don’t have birds flying around. It’s not about having a different perspective here, it’s just a fact. Open source is here. Look around you, look at the browser you’re using, or the mail client you have open, the backend components of the website you’re browsing or maybe even the operating system you might be on.
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Greater Freedom

Open Standards

Also known as Open Formats, Open Standards are much more than just a published specification for storing digital content, media or data. It is a key to freedom.
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