The Open Source Initiative (OSI) was created to promote and protect open source software and communities in short, the OSI acts as a central informational and governing repository of open source software. It provides rules and guidelines for how to use and interact with OSS, as well as providing code licensing information, support, definitions, and general community collaboration to help make the use and treatment of open source understandable.
Open source code is usually stored in a public repository and shared publicly. Anyone can access the repository to use the code independently or contribute improvements to the design and functionality of the overall project.
OSS usually comes with a distribution license. This license includes terms that define how developers can use, study, modify, and most importantly, distribute the software. According to the Synopsys Black Duck® Knowledge Base, five of the most popular licenses are:
