Growing an open source community

Abstract

Since the emergence of free software in the 1980s, the belief that software should be free has been quite widely held. During this period, the software developers took the leading role. As the 1990s began, there was a notable increase in the number of general users of open source software. Furthermore, developers and distro developers (who acted as both licensors and licensees, as well as users and developers) began to take a more active role in driving the direction of open source development. This period marked the emergence of the open source era, characterized by a greater convenience for distro developers. However, in the 2010s, the importance of platforms increased and previous control on licensing diminished. In other words, the history of free software and open source has been the history of how the parties holding the business initiative have been changing at each period.

Keywords

• open source
• free software
• hegemony
• computing history