Programmers contribute to free software and open-source projects for many reasons--some for the fun of it, some to improve their skills and others for a paycheck. Many people have wondered why these ...

There are several riffs on the original 'free as in speech, not free as in beer' distinction as a way of explaining open source. I've been saying 'free as in puppy' for years and I coined 'free as in ...

In the past 20 years, open source software (OSS) has radically changed software development. Open source has gone from being a niche movement to mainstream and is now a core part of the commercial and ...

Often the hardest part of contributing to an open source project is learning where to start. Microsoft has a cure for that. Microsoft’s shift to open development models is an interesting case study in ...

Once considered a script-kiddie toy, JavaScript has become a stalwart scripting language for developing Web applications, and vendors and open source organizations alike are pushing out IDEs and tools ...

Linus Torvalds is a giant of open source. And the story of how he created Linux as a student (Just For Fun, as the title of his book would have it), and then ruled (somewhat grumpily) over the ...

A dearth of funding for vital open source technologies is leading to a swath of support from startups, unicorns, corporations, and even venture capital firms. “It goes without saying that this holds ...

Nathan is a tech journalist from Canada who spends too much money on gadgets. You can find his work on Android Police, Digital Trends, iMore, Mobile Syrup and ZDNET. Nathan studied journalism at ...

Adobe Systems dips its toes into desktop Linux waters, while open-source Web browsers Mozilla and Firefox make waves with gains over Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Adobe, the maker of such major ...