Open source concept came from software development history.

It is originated from program hacking culture. Unlike crackers, who destroys a system, hackers steal secrete program code and open it on the Internet. Then the code is used among programmers and helps them develop better software.

Linus Tovalds gathered these kind of open code of Unix here and there and created a small version of Unix, that is Linux. Then he opened the source code on the Internet.

Linux was used by many other programmers. When they found problems or bugs, they shared the information openly. So the Linux program became more stable and robust.

Finally Linux created a whole new market for open source software.