My Thoughts on Open Source

When I hear the term “open source”, I think of collaboration, transparency, and empowerment. Open source is more than just a software development model, it’s a community where everyone can come together to build something meaningful, transcending geographical and cultural boundaries.

Advantages of Open Source
One of the biggest advantages of open source is freedom—freedom to use, modify, and distribute software as needed. It fosters innovation, as developers worldwide can contribute their expertise to enhance projects. It gives me opportunities to learn from the outstanding, leading achievements in the research/industry.

However, since many projects rely on volunteers, which can lead to burnout. And there’s the issue of security risks, as malicious actors could exploit publicly available code.

I decided to take this class on open source software development because I’m drawn to the idea of contributing to something larger than myself. I want to collaborate with others and do something impatful rather than the toy projects.

Open Source Projects That Inspire Me

Here are four open source projects that have influenced me:

Linux
Linux is the backbone of so much of the modern world, from servers to Android devices. Recently I am running machine learning models and developing apis on servers under Linux system. Linux and the contributers provide a complete and supportive environment for those jobs.