The free software movement was launched in 1983. Later, in 1998, a group of individuals advocated that the term free software be replaced by open source software (OSS).

They suggested this as an expression which is less ambiguous and more comfortable for the corporate world. Software developers may want to publish their software with an open source license, so that anybody may also develop the same software or understand how it works, but they may not want it to be offered for "free".

Open source software generally allows anybody to make a new version of the software, port it to new operating systems and processor architectures, share it with others or market it.

The aim of open source is to let the product be more understandable, modifiable, duplicatable, reliable or simply accessible, while maintaining its marketablity.