If I ask a person what is an open source software? Most of the times, I get answer revolving around the line -”software that is freely distributed with and who’s source code is also available”. Is this the only fact behind open source software, or this is the only thing that people know about open source? And If I lead further deeper, what is an open source technology?, the answer goes further weired, thats beyond our expectation. Not only this, but there are so many other myths that surrounds the open source world. Few of them favor open source and some are against it. Thats why I am thinking to publish an article dedicated to only to myths about the open source technologies. Now firstly, lets know when something comes in Open source category?
According to the Debian Free Software Guidelines, written and adapted primarily by Bruce Perens – “The Open Source Definition is used by the open source initiative to determine whether or not a software license can be considered open source”. You may not understand this definition, but read it after reading this article and if you don’t understand even then it’ll be my failure.
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is an organization dedicated to promoting open source software. The organization was founded in February 1998, by Bruce Perens and Eric S. Raymond, prompted by Netscape Communications Corporation publishing the source code for its flagship Netscape Communicator product.

The guide lines says the following 10 things:

1. Free Redistribution

The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.

2. Source Code

The program must include source code, and must allow distribution in source code as well as compiled form. Where some form of a product is not distributed with source code, there must be a well-publicized means of obtaining the source code for no more than a reasonable reproduction cost preferably, downloading via the Internet without charge. The source code must be the preferred form in which a programmer would modify the program. Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed. Intermediate forms such as the output of a preprocessor or translator are not allowed.

3. Derived Works

The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.

4. Integrity of The Author’s Source Code

The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the license allows the distribution of “patch files” with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license must explicitly permit distribution of software built from modified source code. The license may require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original software.

5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups

The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.

6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor

The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.

7. Distribution of License

The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.

8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product

The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program’s being part of a particular software distribution. If the program is extracted from that distribution and used or distributed within the terms of the program’s license, all parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original software distribution.

9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software

The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the licensed software. For example, the license must not insist that all other programs distributed on the same medium must be open-source software.

10. License Must Be Technology-Neutral

No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style of interface.

This was all about the clarification of definition of open source. Now lets have a look on requirements and criteria of open source softwares :
The Criteria
To comply with the Open Standards Requirement, an “open standard” must satisfy the following criteria. If an “open standard” does not meet these criteria, it will be discriminating against open source developers.

1. No Intentional Secrets

The standard MUST NOT withhold any detail necessary for interoperable implementation. As flaws are inevitable, the standard MUST define a process for fixing flaws identified during implementation and interoperability testing and to incorporate said changes into a revised version or superseding version of the standard to be released under terms that do not violate the OSR.

2. Availability

The standard MUST be freely and publicly available (e.g., from a stable web site) under royalty-free terms at reasonable and non-discriminatory cost.

3. Patents
   • be licensed under royalty-free terms for unrestricted use, or
   • be covered by a promise of non-assertion when practiced by open source software

All patents essential to implementation of the standard MUST:

4. No Agreements

There MUST NOT be any requirement for execution of a license agreement, NDA, grant, click-through, or any other form of paperwork to deploy conforming implementations of the standard.

5. No OSR-Incompatible DependenciesImplementation of the standard MUST NOT require any other technology that fails to meet the criteria of this Requirement. To assist governments and other bodies in recognizing and adopting standards that conform to this Requirement, the OSI defines two levels of compliance:
   1. OSR Compatible

   This indicates that the owner of the standard has self-certified that their standard complies with this Requirement, and all Compliance Criteria. Anyone may ask the OSI to review an OSR Compatible standard; if the OSI finds that the standard is incompatible, the owner must either modify the standard or stop using the OSR Compatible mark.

   2. OSR Conformant

   This indicates the OSI has reviewed a standard, as submitted by the owner, and certified that it fully conforms to the OSR. The OSI may charge a fee to offset the costs of this certification.

   3. Versioning

   The OSI may, at its sole discretion, update the Criteria from time to time to ensure they continue to fulfill the intent of the Requirement. These updates will include an explicit version number, and the most current version will always be available from

To conclude, the term “open source” software is used by some people to mean more or less the same category as free software. It is not exactly the same class of software: they accept some licenses that we consider too restrictive, and there are free software licenses they have not accepted. However, the differences in extension of the category are small: nearly all free software is open source, and nearly all open source software is free.