Open-source software
Key projects

Open source software projects are built and maintained by a network of programmers, who may often be volunteers, and are widely used in free as well as commercial products.

Unix: Unix is an operating system created by AT&T that began as a precursor to open source software in that the free and open source software revolution began when developers began trying to create operating systems without Unix code. Unix was created in the 1960s, before the commercialization of software and before the concept of open source software was necessary, therefore it was not considered a true open source software project. It started as a research project before being commercialized in the mid 1980s. Before its commercialization, it represented many of the ideals held by the Free and Open source software revolution, including the decentralized collaboration of global users, rolling releases and a community culture of distaste towards proprietary software.

BSD: Berkely Software Distribution (BSD) is an operating system that began as a variant of Unix in 1978 that mixed Unix code with code from Berkely labs to increase functionality. As BSD was focused on increasing functionality, it would publicly share its greatest innovations with the main Unix operating system. This is an example of the free public code sharing that is a central characteristic of FOSS today. As Unix became commercialized in the 1980s, developers or members of the community who did not support proprietary software began to focus on BSD and turning it into an operating system that did not include any of Unix's code. The final version of BSD was released in 1995.

GNU: GNU is a free operating system created by Richard Stallman in 1984 with its name meaning Gnu's Not Unix. The idea was to create a Unix alternative operating system that would be available for anyone to use and allow programmers to share code freely between them. However, the goal of GNU was not to only replace Unix, but to make a superior version that had more technological capabilities. It was released before the philosophical beliefs of the Free and Open source software revolution were truly defined. Because of its creation by prominent FOSS programmer Richard Stallman, GNU was heavily involved in FOSS activism, with one of the greatest achievements of GNU being the creation of the GNU General Public License or GPL, which allowed developers to release software that could be legally shared and modified.

Linux: Linux is an operating system kernel that was introduced in 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux was inspired by making a better version of the for profit operating service Minux. It was radically different than what other hackers were producing at the time due to it being totally free of cost and being decentralized. Later, Linux was put under the GPL license, allowing people to make money with Linux and bringing Linux into the FOSS community.

Apache: Apache began in 1995 as a collaboration between a group of developers releasing their own web server due to their frustration with NCSA HTTPd code base. The name Apache was used because of the several patches they applied to this code base. Within a year of its release, it became the worldwide leading web server. Soon, Apache came out with its own license, creating discord in the greater FOSS community, though ultimately proving successful. The Apache license allowed permitted members to directly access source code, a marked difference from GNU and Linux's approaches.
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