open-source

Of or relating to software where the source code is freely available and licensed in a manner that permits modification and redistribution.

Adjective

Of or relating to software where the source code is freely available and licensed in a manner that permits modification and redistribution.
- Linux is an open-source operating system.
- ASP.NET MVC has been under an open-source license since the initial release, but it was just open-source code instead of a full open-source project. - 2014, Jon Galloway, Brad Wilson, K. Scott Allen, David Matson,...
- OpenSNP constituted a rare example of how open-source projects can successfully operate on a low budget, having repeatedly rejected offers from corporations to sell control of the data. - 2025 April 2, Bill Toulas,...
Describing any product whose composition or method of manufacturing is public knowledge and not proprietary.
- open-source cola
- open-source hardware
Relying on publicly available information (open sources).
- open-source intelligence
- The ramifications of disinformation spill on to the streets with tangible, often devastating real-world consequences. These processes were already under way in 2014, when I founded the open-source investigative group...

See open source.

To release the source code of, so as to permit modification and redistribution.
- The big Unix company Sun Microsystems bought the code for StarOffice in 1999, and some time afterward they open-sourced as much of it as they could. - 2005, David Brickner, Test Driving Linux: From Windows to Linux in...