The question of open source

Abstract

Open source software poses a seemingly uninteresting question: Should we have access to the source code of software that we use? One simple response is that we have the software and it does its job. So why bother? That answer works at a certain utilitarian level, we have what we paid for and so do not have to bother about how it works and how it was made. And because it does its job, we are further distanced from bothering about source code—not all of us are computer scientists and know much about software and how it is written.....