Open Source Software

The definition of Open Source and the review of and granting of licenses denoted as Open Source compliant, is regulated by the Open Source Initiative.We at Lexprosoft Technologies have a highly professional and experienced team of open source applications and producing the best open source software worldwide. The OSI are the stewards of the Open Source Definition, which has 10 sections. Such definition is as follows:

1. Free Distribution:

   Open Source Software is, by definition, freely available.

2. Source Code:

   Distribution must include the non-compiled Source Code of the software.

3. Derived Works:

   The license must allow users to modify and derive their own open source software using the Source Code, as long as they also follow the licensing regulations for the public declaration that their own Derived Work is also Open Source.

4. Integrity of the Author’s Source Code:

   A licensee must properly attribute authorship to the actual author, and not falsely unto themselves. If one has added features to an Open Source software package, for instance, they can distribute a set of “patch files” to upgrade the existing software to reflect the new author’s changes. Openness and honesty is the key of the Open Source community.

5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups:

   Not only does this cover day-to-day discrimination, but also covers countries that may have laws against certain things that may clash with the software package in some way. So the license should have provisions that those of other countries take their own risk and shall not hold the author responsible for any legal damages coming from the proper use of said software, regardless of the laws of the user’s country. Since completely open access is the main rung of Open Source, anyone who wishes must be allowed to download it. So while the license may warn of applicable restrictions (if known, of course) in certain countries, they may not build those restrictions into the software.

6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor:

   It does not matter whether a user will utilize any Open Source software for educational purposes, or commercial purposes, or any other such fields of endeavor – and an author of Open Source software may not disallow any use of such software that is not disallowed by Law.

7. Distribution of License:

   If the user distributes Open Source software to another party, they may not apply any restrictions not granted by the Open Source Definition.

8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product:

   If a certain program or subroutine is extracted from an Open Source software package in order to write a new program, the license for the software package must also include the license for said program or subroutine.

9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software:

   Mostly self-explanatory, if any other software is included in a redistribution package, the original Open Source license grantor may not demand, for example, that all software packages containing such source code, programs or subroutines, must be also Open Source. In other words, commercially available and copyrighted software may contain Open Source modules (properly attributed) and a licensor has no right to restrict that by any user of an Open Source software package.

10. License Must be Technology Neutral:

    The Open Source software can be installed and/or used in any medium, whether download, CD-ROM, etc.

Open Source is rapidly becoming a major standard in computing. We can customize any Open Source software package to reflect your company’s unique persona. Call us today, or check out our brochure!