OSS or open source software refers to a program where the source code is made available to the general public for use and modification from its original design free of cost. It is generally created as a mutual effort in which programmers customize the code as per their requirement. As in this everything is pretty much transparent and the source code is available free of cost it is called as Open Source. The difference between open source and other commercial products is that, open source concentrates more on durability, user-friendliness, scope of improvement etc, where as commercial products focus more on the visual appeal of the product. This is usually developed by the hardcore professional programmers whose motivation is not money but user-feedback and customer satisfaction. The success of These is largely based on financial profitability though that is not the be all and end all of open source projects.
