Introduction

The subject of open source software is large in extent and complexity. It is currently one of the "hottest" topics in the ICT world, which means the sheer amount of open source software is increasing day by day and its influence is spreading too.

This Overview section covers these areas:

• About open source
• Who is using open source?
• Case studies
• Pros and cons
• Open source heroes
• A brief history of open source
• Monetize: making money from open source
• Software licenses
• Careers in open source
• Open source hardware
• Non computing uses
• The future

Once you have read the Overview section, you should have a good understanding of the nature of open source software and how it can be of benefit to your company or organisation. The following sections fill-out this knowledge and will give you all of the information that you need to locate and use open source software yourself.