What does Open Source mean to you?

[Deanna]

Open Source is more than just a technical product, we would love to hear your thoughts on what Open Source means to you!

This can be a technical description, leadership style, development workflow, mission, personal definition, thought process, etc.

This question is part of the 100K Member Contest - don't forget to kudo the original contest post to be entered. 

[crkrishnadas]

Open Source is a kind of free platform with pre-defined source code and that anyone can inspect, modify, and enhance according to their needs.

[MK3000]

Open source is a concept about the freedom of information.

[AV77]

 A world for open thoughts 

[Marulasiddaiah]

Open source is free, publicly accessible code/software/design/service/application etc. Its like each and every individual can contribute their ideas, knowledge, experience making a robust, reliable end product. Building a open source platform is a Red Hat culture, from a linux distribution to multi cloud services.

[Sulav-Niraula]

Open to all. Users,contributors and service providers.

[andy_f]

Open Source to me means nothing less than freedom, a level playing field for anyone who wants to develop software. Imho especially the operating system should always be open source. It is the only way to ensure every developer or company has equal access to the internal workings of the OS and there is no single company who controls the OS that can use hidden or undocumented libraries which are more performant, less buggy,..., giving it an unfair advantage. I've been working with linux and Open Source software since the mid nineties and wouldn't want anything else.

[Germanusp82]

Open source cherishes from community contribution. Makes technology available for everyone to use and innovate. There are limitations on how open source software can be used in a production environment.

[Noufel]

Open source means nothing to me, nor closed source neither. whichever can satisfy my requirements and it is easy to use . I will go for 

[firstmatteo]

For me its freedom of choice and selfempowerment

[misanche]

collaboration, improve and freedom