Portal:Open-source software/Introduction

Open-source software is software with available source code that can be used, changed, and shared (in modified or unmodified form) by anyone. Open-source software is made by many people, and distributed under licenses that comply with the Open Source Definition.

Some of the "more prominent organizations" involved in OSS development include the Apache Software Foundation, creators of the Apache web server; the Linux Foundation, a nonprofit which as of 2012 employed Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux operating system kernel; Google, the company behind the Android project; Oracle, the company behind Java; the Eclipse Foundation, home of the Eclipse software development platform; the Mozilla Foundation, home of the Firefox web browser.