Introduction

Welcome to the Open Source page.

So what is Open Source? In a nut shell, for any computer program that you use, you can also get the source code. Why is that useful? Well, for one, up and coming software developers can learn from the experienced ones, much like young writers can learn from reading Hemmingway, Twain, Dickens, etc.

In addition, take the case of Microsoft and Visual Basic 6.0. Microsoft decided to abandoned Visual Basic for their new .NET platform and new (non-backwards compatible) Visual Basic .NET. Literally hundreds of thousands of programmers had to either abandon millions of lines of code to upgrade to the .NET platform or continue using Visual Basic 6.0 which targeted Windows 98. If Microsoft had given Visual Basic to the open source community, then this community could continue to upgrade, improve and support Visual Basic. Of course Microsoft wouldn't have made a dime from such a move, but the goodwill created would probably help them down the road. And hundreds of thousands of their customers would be happy.

For more information on Open Source, click here.

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