Open Source. History and Market

In this document we give a short overview of the history and current situation of Open Source. We focus on major aspects, namely legal and license issues, but also provide examples of Open Source projects and some market data. Technical aspects of Open Source and a discussion of pros and cons of Open Source vs. proprietary software are being avoided for two reasons. Firstly, this discussion is not our focus in this document. Secondly, the discussion is in the moment mostly emotional. Both sides have good arguments and will live beside each other, further the market and the user group change fast. Especially in the area of Open Source new software engineering methodologies evolve concerning distributed/collaborative development..