A brief history of open source

Open source as a term dates back to February 3rd, 1998, but the ethos and ideals date back decades before that. Let’s take a look back in time.

The concepts of viewing, modifying, and sharing, along with open collaboration, can be traced to way before the internet and computers. Much of this was commonplace in hacker and maker cultures, both rooted in artisan spirits. For hundreds and thousands of years, new technologies and innovations were born out of the sharing of ideas with each other, each time seeing the next effort built off of that of others before. The challenges were only the ability for ideas to travel, where Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press began the acceleration of knowledge that became the Renaissance.

There has always been a natural tension between the collaborative spirit and commercialization. The establishment of the system of patents in the 1400 and 1500s had the intention of protecting inventors but...