What is open source?

Open source refers to software designed to be easily accessible and improved by anyone through its source code. Most users can’t see the source code, but developers have access to the open source. This access allows them to fix and enhance the application based on their needs. For example, by manipulating the code and changing its functionality, developers can repair the program or application that is not working properly. Furthermore, developers can start their projects and release them as open source.

Examples of some of the open source software (OSS) are GNU/Linux, Mozilla Firefox, VLC media player, SugarCRM, etc.

When a company releases a new product to the public, it must decide whether to create open or closed source. Choosing a closed source means that its source code can be modified only by the organization that developed the product or application. On the other hand, as we mentioned earlier, open source is publicly available for anyone who sees it and can be easily modified. This is its biggest advantage, although some features may cost extra.

Also, there are other benefits of choosing open source.

What are the advantages of open source?

• Opportunity to learn and progress – Open source projects are preferred by many developers. This type of software provides a valuable learning environment and covers a wide range of technologies, programming languages,​​ and tools. Which makes development much easier for developers.
• Cost benefits – Because there is no payment required when using open source software, it allows businesses to assign their software budget elsewhere.
• Community Engagement – Because this type of software is publicly available, it allows developers to create projects and interact with other developers outside of their organizations.

Despite the benefits of using open source software, there are also some risks.

What are the disadvantages of open source?

• Security – Due to the availability of open source software, security can be put at risk by people with malicious intentions.
• Difficult to use – Because designing an app takes a lot of time, effort, and proper skills. Some of the open source applications have smaller teams of designers responsible for the user experience and larger teams of developers. This makes developers the ones who design the app, making it еventually “developer-friendly” instead of user-friendly. Which makes the application difficult to use by the users.
• Lack of support – A product developed through open source software can be modified by many people. When a problem with the functioning of the application or product occurs, the users will not know who to turn to.

Conclusion

Open source refers to making the source code of software programs and platforms accessible to all. The final goal is to improve the programs for the benefit of the users.

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HTML makes the page only readable without explicit styling. To control exactly how HTML elements look in the browser using whatever design you want. This is where CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) comes in.

What is CSS (Cascading Style Sheet)?

CSS is a style sheet language used for formatting content in HTML web pages. So it’s important to remember that CSS is not a programming language. Cascading style sheet is a design language that makes a website look more appealing than just pieces of text.

This is a design tool that often is combined with HTML or XHTML markup languages and requires creativity.

Where can we use CSS?

With CSS you can change the appearance and formatting of text, tables, and other elements separately from the content itself.

Cascading Style Sheet can be used to change the color and size of headings and links and even to create effects such as animation.

Based on where the CSS is added in the HTML document there are three types: Internal, External, and Inline. So in order to know which one is best to style our web pages with, we need to tell them apart.

What are the types of CSS?

Internal CSS (Cascading Style Sheet)

Internal CSS is also called embedded CSS. This type of cascading sheet is when the CSS code is inserted in the <head> section of the HTML document. This defines the style for a single page. This CSS style will be reloaded every time the website is refreshed. For example, you can use an internal style to assign colors to paragraphs on your page.

External CSS (Cascading Style Sheet)

With this type, everything is done externally on a .css file. This means you can do all the styling on a separate file, called a stylesheet. Then you have to create a link to this CSS stylesheet and put it in the <head> section of your document. You can apply the CSS to any page that you want. This helps you define the style for many HTML pages. As a result, by manipulating only one file you can change the whole look of the website.

Inline style (Cascading Style Sheet)

This style works with specific elements that have the <style> tag. So we can apply a unique style to a single HTML element. This makes it unfit for use on large-scale projects. In this case, we’ll have to search in HTML code to pick out where we’ve used inline styling.

Using CSS improves the page speed and the user experience.

CSS is a rule-based language. This allows you to use one CSS rule and apply it to all appearances of a certain tag within the HTML document. Which improves site speed. Also, it’s easy to improve user experience as CSS allows user-friendly formatting. You can apply specific formatting rules and styles to multiply pages with one string of code.

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