The basic idea behind Open Source is very simple: When programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software evolves. People improve it, people adapt it, people fix bugs. And this can happen at a speed that, if one is used to the slow pace of conventional software development, seems astonishing.

The Open Source Community has learned that this rapid evolutionary process produces better software than the traditional closed model, in which only a very few programmers can see the source and everybody else must blindly use an opaque block of bits.

Some of my favorite Open Source Projects are The GIMP , OpenOffice.org, the very popular FireFox browser, the NVU web authoring system, the Linux operating system, and, of course, the Joomla! Content Management System.