Oh its Open Source
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Open Source, Who wrote the code you are using today?
We think nowadays the term Open Source is massively misunderstood or just completely overlooked by many people. Lets just explore why we say that for a minute
Say a Company went along to a website company and asked them for a new website to show content and their pictures for some products. The website company then went on to build them a website for a fee.
After they received the new website it took them some time to feel at home with the software they had to use to put stuff onto the website. However when they login they notice it tells them its called WordPress.
Which then leads to questions which we often receive like "Do you know anything about the software that they wrote for us its called WordPress?".
This is a more common scenario than you would think not everyone cares or pays too much attention to the software that is used to build something. But what's this got to do with Open Source?
We're glad your asking yourself this question, so let us explain:
So the website company has used WordPress to create the website which is open source.
WordPress needs PHP to function which again is Open Source.
Along with a Database which may also be Open Source as well.
Plus Themes and addins in WordPress might also be Open Source.
But hey its just free software So what's the issue?
Well the good news is there's no major issue with this, but your company now has a requirement to meet the license conditions of the Open Sourced pieces of code you were given.
We're sure that it's things like this lack of definition, that play a large part into the thinking its just free software! Which is a shame for the Open Source authors hard work and future ongoing support.
Mostly Open Source software is built by someone who wanted to solve a problem for themselves or for someone else maybe the code was on GitHub for anyone to read freely, this means that it is copyrighted which is not available for us without asking and agreeing terms.
But if a license is assigned to the software, the license will spell out how the software can be used and things you can't do with it.
But not all Open Source is built by individuals, companies also choose to make software available with open source license, this might be a way to make it easy to use a paid services that they also offer.
So what is an Open Source license
This is not a straight forward thing to answer here as there are many licenses covering Open Source. But in general most cover how and where the software can be used, if you have to leave the authors/project info in files and if you can resell the software. Its always best to read the license for the software you want to use. On GitHub on the repository page if you click the license link you will see the license with key points clearly displayed to help you understand what you are allowed to do with some license types, others will just display the full license.
Does it mean your company should do something if you are using Open Source
In general you are only required to stay on the right side of the license terms. But if you can and are able to then maybe you or your company could look into giving back to the Open Source projects you rely on.
This could maybe be in terms of money to support the Open Source project or maybe in terms of time with help which could take many forms. Direct help on the Open Source project from document updates, detailed bug reports or full code updates in the form of a pull request. Read CONTRIBUTING.md to understand the workflow, and don’t hesitate to ask questions. Remember, open source is as much about collaboration as it is about code.
However you must take on board that it is someone else's Open Source project so your requirement or idea for a change or feature might not fit the owners view for the Open Source project. Put another way you have no automatic right to get a feature added or for an update to make it work as you want.
GitHub offers a way for you to sponsor an Open Source project with a one off payment or on a monthly basis.
Another way is to promote and highlight how the software has enabled you to solve your needs with a post or page on your website. Plus a simple thank you to the Open Source owner highlighting how you're using the software, might make someone's day.
Should you really want a feature within the Open Source project maybe asking the owner if you could fund the work to add it in. If you can't work out a deal then you could fork the project and add the feature for your company if the license terms permit that route.
Ongoing Support
Just because you are using an open source piece of software does not mean you have the right to any support for that software. Support will often be from the good will of the owner or volunteers that are giving there time to the project.
Ecosystem of Open Source
Open source provides a great ecosystem for many individuals and Businesses to solve their requirements without having to spend time to write the required platform or software from scratch. However this ecosystem can only work if more people start to think in terms of offering support back to open source projects, and not just see it as a way to get free software.
We would also like to see more people and companies making it clearer that the software they are providing is written by someone else and is open source, this will make sure that more businesses are then educated and will be able to think I could help out in some way.
Why WordPress
I have used WordPress here to highlight its Open Source and it depends on other Open Source packages because its well known in the website market place but I'm sure if you start to look around you will find a large part of the software you use daily is also Open Source. Guess what software's like VS Code and Git are both also Open Source projects.