open-source

See also: opensource and open source

English

Alternative forms

• open source, opensource

Etymology

See open source.

Adjective

open-source (not comparable)

1. (software) Of or relating to a product which is licensed to permit modifications and redistribution of its source code, as per The Open Source Definition.

   Coordinate term: source-available

   Linux is an open-source operating system.

   • 2014, Jon Galloway, Brad Wilson, K. Scott Allen, David Matson, Professional ASP.NET MVC 5, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 10:

     ASP.NET MVC has been under an open-source license since the initial release, but it was just open-source code instead of a full open-source project.

2. (by extension) Describing any product whose composition or method of manufacturing is public knowledge and not proprietary.

   open-source cola

3. (espionage) Relying on publicly available information (open sources).

   open-source intelligence

   • 2023 December 16, Eliot Higgins, “Moment of truth”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 1:

     The ramifications of disinformation spill on to the streets with tangible, often devastating real-world consequences. These processes were already under way in 2014, when I founded the open-source investigative group Bellingcat.

Antonyms

• closed-source

Derived terms

• open-sourceness

Translations

Translations

• Arabic: مَفْتُوح الْمَصْدَرِ (maftūḥ al-maṣdari)
• German: quelloffen (de), quelltextoffen
• Greek: ανοιχτός κώδικας (el) (anoichtós kódikas)
• Polish: otwarty (pl)
• Turkish: açık kaynak (tr)

See also

• free software
• source-available

Verb

open-source (third-person singular simple present open-sources, present participle open-sourcing, simple past and past participle open-sourced)

1. (transitive) To release the source code of.
   • 2005, David Brickner, Test Driving Linux: From Windows to Linux in 60 Seconds:

     The big Unix company Sun Microsystems bought the code for StarOffice in 1999, and some time afterward they open-sourced as much of it as they could.