Skip to content
geeksforgeeks
  • Courses
    • DSA to Development
    • Get IBM Certification
    • Newly Launched!
      • Master Django Framework
      • Become AWS Certified
    • For Working Professionals
      • Interview 101: DSA & System Design
      • Data Science Training Program
      • JAVA Backend Development (Live)
      • DevOps Engineering (LIVE)
      • Data Structures & Algorithms in Python
    • For Students
      • Placement Preparation Course
      • Data Science (Live)
      • Data Structure & Algorithm-Self Paced (C++/JAVA)
      • Master Competitive Programming (Live)
      • Full Stack Development with React & Node JS (Live)
    • Full Stack Development
    • Data Science Program
    • All Courses
  • Tutorials
    • Data Structures & Algorithms
    • ML & Data Science
    • Interview Corner
    • Programming Languages
    • Web Development
    • CS Subjects
    • DevOps And Linux
    • School Learning
  • Practice
    • Build your AI Agent
    • GfG 160
    • Problem of the Day
    • Practice Coding Problems
    • GfG SDE Sheet
  • Contests
    • Accenture Hackathon (Ending Soon!)
    • GfG Weekly [Rated Contest]
    • Job-A-Thon Hiring Challenge
    • All Contests and Events
  • Software Engineering Tutorial
  • Software Development Life Cycle
  • Waterfall Model
  • Software Requirements
  • Software Measurement and Metrics
  • Software Design Process
  • System configuration management
  • Software Maintenance
  • Software Development Tutorial
  • Software Testing Tutorial
  • Product Management Tutorial
  • Project Management Tutorial
  • Agile Methodology
  • Selenium Basics
Open In App
Next Article:
Introduction to Mercurial
Next article icon

Introduction to Open-Source and its benefits

Last Updated : 05 Jan, 2021
Comments
Improve
Suggest changes
Like Article
Like
Report

What does Open-source mean?
The term Open-source is closely related to Open-source software (OSS). Open-source software is a type of computer software that is released under a license, but the source code is made available to all the users. The copyright holders of such software allow the users to use it and do some valuable modifications in its source code to add some new features, to improve the existing features, and to fix bugs if there are any. Because of this reason only Open-source software is mostly developed collaboratively.

Some famous examples of Open-source products are :

  • Operating systems –
    Android, Ubuntu, Linux
  • Internet browsers –
    Mozilla Firefox, Chromium
  • Integrated Development Environment (IDEs) –
    Vs code (Visual Studio Code), Android Studio, PyCharm, Xcode

Open-source community and Contributions :
The open-source community is a worldwide community of programmers and software developers who are continuously working on various open-source projects to make our lives better. This community is self-governing and self-organizing, there are no executives to take the decisions solely. This community plays a very crucial role in the sustainability of various open-source organizations.

The contributions made in any open-source project which improves its usability are called open-source contributions. These contributions can be of any form not only some software codes like we can work on improving its documentation, improving its UI/UX (user interface and design), organize meetups, or find new collaborators.

Benefits of Open-source contributions :

  • We code for real-world open-source projects.
  • It refines our existing knowledge of programming and also helps us to learn new skills.
  • Many open-source projects offer mentorship programs to guide and help us through our first few contributions.
  • We need not develop the whole thing from scratch, we just have to fork our favorite projects and start experimenting with them.
  • After making any open-source contribution, we get immediate feedback regarding our developmental work.
  • While doing open-source contributions, we interact with like-minded developers from all over the world and build connections along the way.
  • As we get more closer to the open-source community, we get to know much more about our field of interest and other related fields.
  • The most important aspect of open-source contributions is It may fetch us a job in our field of interest.

Hence, a large number of students are heading towards open-source contributions because these days quality open-source contributions in some good projects are seen as an alternative to the good internships with developer’s profile. The reason is we get the same kind of exposure to work and learn the required skills for software development like any good internships at Google or Microsoft.



Next Article
Introduction to Mercurial
author
sanju6890
Improve
Article Tags :
  • Software Engineering
  • Open Source

Similar Reads

  • How to Contribute to Open Source?
    Contributing to open-source projects is a rewarding way to enhance your skills, gain practical experience, and give back to the developer community. Open-source projects welcome contributions from developers of all levels, and getting started is easier than you might think. In this article, we will
    10 min read
  • Introduction to Mercurial
    Mercurial is a distributed version control system (DVCS) designed to handle projects of any size efficiently and quickly. It offers a robust set of features, making it a popular choice for developers who need to track changes, collaborate with others, and manage their codebase effectively. In this a
    3 min read
  • Impact of free open Source Software in ERP Implementation
    Prerequisite - ERP Implementation Life-Cycle Free open-source software sometimes called Open Source or Free Software. It is software that is licensed to be free to use, modify, and distribute. Everyone is free to use, copy, study, and openly share the source code so that people volunteer themselves
    3 min read
  • Open Source Code Compilation Risk
    Why Should You Care About Open Source?There are chances for following risks Licensing and Compliance Risk Security Risk Business and Operational Risk Remediation Risk Licensing and Compliance Risk : Breach of licenses - Automatic termination since no materiality/cure period : Breach of licenses mean
    5 min read
  • Benefits of CASE - Software Engineering
    Computer-aided Software Engineering (CASE) implements computer-facilitated tools and methods in software development. CASE tools were similar to computer-aided design tools used for designing hardware products. This article focuses on discussing the benefits of CASE. Benefits of CASESeveral benefits
    3 min read
  • Difference between Open Source Software and Closed Source Software
    In this article, we learn about Open Source Software and Closed Source Software in detail and their concepts and more follow: 1. Open Source Software Open source software refers to computer software whose source is open means the general public can access and use it. In short, it is referred to as O
    6 min read
  • Software Freedom in FOSS (Free and open-source software)
    Free Software or Libre (Libre is the most common Spanish adjective for "free") software are the softwares that allows user to do to any kind of work he/she wants as well as he can modify, add new features and he has freedom to distribute the changed version also. A software is said to be free if it
    2 min read
  • Top 10 Open Source AI Projects in 2025
    There are many open-source projects in Artificial Intelligence that are never heard of. But many of these projects also grow to be part of the fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence. Take TensorFlow for instance. Everybody has heard about TensorFlow in the AI world! However, it was initially just a
    8 min read
  • Difference between Open source Software and Commercial Software
    Open source software is created by individuals, groups, or organizations and is freely available for anyone to modify and distribute. It is typically cost-free, with its source code openly accessible, allowing for transparency and customization. Examples include Firefox, OpenOffice, and VLC media pl
    7 min read
  • Difference between Free Software and Open Source Software
    Free Software and Open Source Software are two philosophies in software engineering. Free Software and Open Source Software both have common goals of collaboration and innovation but they are distinct in terms of why they are doing it and prioritize different aspects of software development and dist
    6 min read
geeksforgeeks-footer-logo
Corporate & Communications Address:
A-143, 7th Floor, Sovereign Corporate Tower, Sector- 136, Noida, Uttar Pradesh (201305)
Registered Address:
K 061, Tower K, Gulshan Vivante Apartment, Sector 137, Noida, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, 201305
GFG App on Play Store GFG App on App Store
Advertise with us
  • Company
  • About Us
  • Legal
  • Privacy Policy
  • In Media
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise with us
  • GFG Corporate Solution
  • Placement Training Program
  • Languages
  • Python
  • Java
  • C++
  • PHP
  • GoLang
  • SQL
  • R Language
  • Android Tutorial
  • Tutorials Archive
  • DSA
  • Data Structures
  • Algorithms
  • DSA for Beginners
  • Basic DSA Problems
  • DSA Roadmap
  • Top 100 DSA Interview Problems
  • DSA Roadmap by Sandeep Jain
  • All Cheat Sheets
  • Data Science & ML
  • Data Science With Python
  • Data Science For Beginner
  • Machine Learning
  • ML Maths
  • Data Visualisation
  • Pandas
  • NumPy
  • NLP
  • Deep Learning
  • Web Technologies
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript
  • TypeScript
  • ReactJS
  • NextJS
  • Bootstrap
  • Web Design
  • Python Tutorial
  • Python Programming Examples
  • Python Projects
  • Python Tkinter
  • Python Web Scraping
  • OpenCV Tutorial
  • Python Interview Question
  • Django
  • Computer Science
  • Operating Systems
  • Computer Network
  • Database Management System
  • Software Engineering
  • Digital Logic Design
  • Engineering Maths
  • Software Development
  • Software Testing
  • DevOps
  • Git
  • Linux
  • AWS
  • Docker
  • Kubernetes
  • Azure
  • GCP
  • DevOps Roadmap
  • System Design
  • High Level Design
  • Low Level Design
  • UML Diagrams
  • Interview Guide
  • Design Patterns
  • OOAD
  • System Design Bootcamp
  • Interview Questions
  • Inteview Preparation
  • Competitive Programming
  • Top DS or Algo for CP
  • Company-Wise Recruitment Process
  • Company-Wise Preparation
  • Aptitude Preparation
  • Puzzles
  • School Subjects
  • Mathematics
  • Physics
  • Chemistry
  • Biology
  • Social Science
  • English Grammar
  • Commerce
  • World GK
  • GeeksforGeeks Videos
  • DSA
  • Python
  • Java
  • C++
  • Web Development
  • Data Science
  • CS Subjects
@GeeksforGeeks, Sanchhaya Education Private Limited, All rights reserved
We use cookies to ensure you have the best browsing experience on our website. By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understood our Cookie Policy & Privacy Policy
Lightbox
Improvement
Suggest Changes
Help us improve. Share your suggestions to enhance the article. Contribute your expertise and make a difference in the GeeksforGeeks portal.
geeksforgeeks-suggest-icon
Create Improvement
Enhance the article with your expertise. Contribute to the GeeksforGeeks community and help create better learning resources for all.
geeksforgeeks-improvement-icon
Suggest Changes
min 4 words, max Words Limit:1000

Thank You!

Your suggestions are valuable to us.

What kind of Experience do you want to share?

Interview Experiences
Admission Experiences
Career Journeys
Work Experiences
Campus Experiences
Competitive Exam Experiences