Open Source Licenses: How They're Similar, How They're Different
![Open Source Licenses: How They're Similar, How They're Different Open Source Licenses: How They're Similar, How They're Different](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blt3f38634c97d1f963/65246123f3cc838e48e238b7/ThinkstockPhotos-475699010_0.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Open source software often has to work alongside closed-source code. After all, very few software environments are composed entirely of open source software.
The LGPL makes it possible to mix open source and closed source software easily. This is especially important in cases where developers want to license their software as open source, but the software require closed-source libraries in order to run.
Conceived in 1998, when Netscape was open-sourcing its Web browser to form what would become Mozilla Firefox, the Mozilla Public License governs most of the programs in the popular suite of Mozilla software. It has been adopted to govern some other major open source programs, too, most notably LibreOffice.
Free and open source software was conceived when almost all software programs ran on a user's local computer, rather than in the cloud. When the cloud came along, it created a new challenge for open source advocates because the terms of licenses like the GPL do not prevent companies from running open source software on cloud servers without providing access to the source code to end users. Such a practice would effectively deny users the rights that open source licenses are intended to protect.
The AGPL was designed to handle this challenge. Users must be allowed to download the source code of software licensed under the AGPL even if the software runs on a remote server rather than their own computers.
The MIT License (which is actually a series of distinct licenses originally created for software programs that originated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is arguably the freest open source license out there, in the sense that it places virtually no restrictions on what users can do with source code. Users can do almost anything they want with code governed by the MIT License — including making it closed-source.
The MIT License, which governs widely used open source platforms like X Windows, Ruby on Rails and Node.js is the most popular open source software license available today.
Like the MIT License, the Apache License, which originated with the group that developed the Apache HTTP Server in the mid-1990s, is quite liberal. It allows users to do almost anything they wish with code governed by its terms.
The Apache License governs many of the most important open source platforms today, from Hadoop and Spark to Docker.
The GPL is probably the most famous of the open source (some would say "free software") licenses, although it is not the most popular one. Introduced by Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation in the mid-1980s to protect the source code of the GNU operating system, it was chosen by Linux Torvalds in 1991 as the license for Linux (after a brief period during which Torvalds licensed Linux under a very simple license he had written himself). The GPL is more restrictive than many other open source licenses because it places relatively stringent controls of what developers can and cannot do with source code.
The GPL is probably the most famous of the open source (some would say "free software") licenses, although it is not the most popular one. Introduced by Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation in the mid-1980s to protect the source code of the GNU operating system, it was chosen by Linux Torvalds in 1991 as the license for Linux (after a brief period during which Torvalds licensed Linux under a very simple license he had written himself). The GPL is more restrictive than many other open source licenses because it places relatively stringent controls of what developers can and cannot do with source code.
People talk of open source software as if all open source programs were made the same. In fact, there are several dozen different kinds of open source software licenses (some would prefer to call them free software licenses). If you want to understand the open source landscape today, you need to know what the major software licenses are and how they differ.
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