GEN2050 SUMMER 2026

WHAT IS OPEN SOURCE?

When anyone can see, use, change, and share the code behind the software

🍕 THINK OF IT LIKE A RECIPE

🔒
CLOSED SOURCE
Like a secret recipe — you can eat the pizza, but you can't see how it's made. If you want to change the toppings, too bad!
📖
OPEN SOURCE
Like a shared recipe — anyone can read it, cook it, add their own toppings, and share their version with the world!

🔓 CLOSED vs OPEN

🔒 Closed Source

  • 🚫 Code is secret — you can't see it
  • 🚫 Only the company can fix bugs
  • 🚫 You can't change how it works
  • 💰 Usually costs money
  • 🏢 One company controls it

🔓 Open Source

  • ✅ Code is public — anyone can read it
  • ✅ Anyone can find and fix bugs
  • ✅ You can change it to fit your needs
  • 🆓 Usually free to use
  • 🌍 A community maintains it together

🌍 YOU ALREADY USE OPEN SOURCE!

These are all open source — anyone can see and contribute to their code:

🤖
ANDROID
Phone operating system
OPEN SOURCE
🦊
FIREFOX
Web browser
OPEN SOURCE
🐧
LINUX
Powers most servers & supercomputers
OPEN SOURCE
🎨
BLENDER
3D art & animation
OPEN SOURCE
▶️
VLC
Media player
OPEN SOURCE
🐍
PYTHON
Programming language
OPEN SOURCE
📝
VS CODE
Code editor by Microsoft
OPEN SOURCE
🌐
WIKIPEDIA
Open knowledge
OPEN SOURCE

And here are some popular closed source examples you might know:

🍎
iOS
iPhone system
CLOSED SOURCE
🪟
WINDOWS
PC operating system
CLOSED SOURCE
🎮
FORTNITE
Video game
CLOSED SOURCE
📸
PHOTOSHOP
Image editing
CLOSED SOURCE

🛠️ HOW OPEN SOURCE WORKS

Watch how people around the world build software together — click "Add Contributor" to see the code grow!

1# A simple open-source calculator
2def add(a, b):
3    return a + b
👩‍💻 Sarah created the project

✨ THE 4 FREEDOMS OF OPEN SOURCE

Open source software gives you four key freedoms:

👁️
Freedom to SEE — You can look at the source code and understand exactly how the software works. No secrets.
🚀
Freedom to USE — You can run the software for any purpose, usually for free. No permission needed.
🔧
Freedom to CHANGE — You can modify the code to fix bugs, add features, or make it work your way.
🎁
Freedom to SHARE — You can give copies to your friends, or share your improved version with the world.

🤯 MIND-BLOWING FACTS

90%
☁️
90% of the cloud runs on Linux — an open source operating system. Google, Amazon, Netflix, and NASA all use it.
100M
👨‍💻
Over 100 million developers share code on GitHub, the world's biggest open source platform.
$0
🆓
Most open source software is completely free — Blender can do everything Photoshop does, and it costs $0.
🚗
🤖
Self-driving cars use open source AI — Tesla, Waymo, and others build on open source machine learning code.
🏆
🧒
Kids contribute to open source! Students around the world fix bugs and add features to real projects used by millions.

🧠 WHY THIS MATTERS FOR YOU

Open source means you don't have to build everything from scratch — you can stand on the shoulders of millions of developers who came before you.

Want to build a game? There are open source game engines ready to go.
Want to make an app? There are open source frameworks that handle the hard stuff.
Want to learn AI? The same tools Google and OpenAI use are free and open source.

The best part? You can contribute too. Found a typo? Fix it. Have an idea? Add it. Open source is built by people just like you — and some of them started when they were your age. 🚀