How KIE being open source helps you
In some ways, Excel spreadsheets (the file, not the Microsoft program) have their source open for viewing. Since most spreadsheet files aren’t password protected, if you have a copy of somebody else’s spreadsheet, you can often open it and learn how it works.
Within reason (for example, if you work at the same company as the creator), you can update the Excel sheet and make it even better. This is useful, for example, when the original author has left the company and the sheet is vital to keep the business running.
Open source means that you have all the details of the software design available to you, instead of just downloading the end product as a binary file that you cannot change. It means that you can modify, build, and run the software both now and in the future – even if the original vendor goes out of business.
Open source is supported by a set of tools to allow the easy sharing and building of these source...