Source Codes: Open and Closed

 Source Codes

Source Codes are the programming statements that are created for a program or an application or a website or anything that needs a piece of code to run. It is any piece of code. 

Closed Source Codes

The software whose source codes are not available publicly are Closed Source Codes. Even if the software is free, it might still be closed source. So a software being free does not mean that it's source code is available to everyone. Most of the software we use are software with closed source code.

These software usually cost money to download or show advertisement inside their software. That is the way they can earn money through their app. 

Open Source Codes

The software whose source codes are available freely on the Internet are open source codes. These types of software are always free and we can edit the source code for ourselves and use it according to our own need.

These software are free to download and use. They don't even show any ads or use our data for any purpose unless allowed by the user. So, donations are the only earning method for these software. 

Comparison 

Most of the software that we use are mostly closed source. That's because creation and establishment of the apps mainly focuses on the purpose of getting profit and that is totally fair. When someone is giving you some service, they also have to get profit from it because they also have to earn and get paid for their hard work. Now, a question might arise in the mid of many of you, that is,

"I am downloading the apps and software for free without paying anything. How are the developers getting paid?"

The answer to this question is simple. If the apps are not charging you directly, they are gaining profit as you are using the app. Let me explain a bit more. In most of the free apps, you get to see a lot of advertisement or ads. Now think about it. Why would the developers keep ads in their apps while they know that it will make their app a bit frustrating or slow or make the experience a bit bad? That's because they make money from ads. Showing you ads also gives them some money. That's why even though the developers know that adding ads in their app will make their customers or users' experience bad, they have to add it to earn money. Some apps also offer you to upgrade to the pro or premium version of that same app to unlock new additional features and to disable ads. The developers also earn by this method. The use of your data also helps the developers earn. By using your data, the developers also get an idea of showing you the ads in which you are interested which makes more chance of you clicking into it. 

The case is quite opposite with open source. Open source apps and software are not used as much as the closed source software. This might be because using open source software needs a bit more knowledge as the interfaces are made quite difficult to use. Another main reason for not using the closed source might be the people already being familiar with the existing closed source software and not wanting to switch. This again raises a question, "Why did the people not use the open source software from the start?". One main reason behind this might be the lack of knowledge of people in these kind of things back then. They might had not been so concerned about their data and where there data is going. They might also have had less knowledge about data leaks and all. And while they were not well introduced about these things, they definitely went with the closed source software as they had nice interfaces and were easy to use. The reason why the closed source software had better interfaces might because the developers gave more effort as they were going to make money and profit. But that was not the case with the open source software the open source software were not created with the motive of earning profit.

The main purpose of creating open source software is to fulfill the need that no current software is not being able to fulfill or the solution is not liked or not reliable. When someone creates a software with source code being public and open, other programmers who were also looking for software with similar concept can use it and they can also add their own code and improve it. This is one of the best feature or ability of the open source software. This helps the other programmers and in return they can also help the original developer either by donating to them or just by improving their code so that other people can also get a better software to use. Again another question might arise into your mind,"Why are the developers not adding ads in the open source software? Doing that will help them earn too right?'. Now, doing this is totally pointless. Even if a developer was to add ads in the software, someone could be able to easily copy that same code, remove the ads' portion and re-publish the ad-free version of the same software and people would be more attracted towards the new ad-free version because it has no ads and the experience would be better.

Conclusion

Now, as a Linux user, in my opinion the Open source software are always a better choice for me because most of the software for Linux are open source and Linux itself is an open source operating system. So I just like the idea or the concept of the open source software. So I would always recommend using the open source software but that totally does not mean that the closed source software are bad.