Closed source vs open source software.

Someone asked me the difference between closed source and open source software. For a layman, I thought the best way might be to use pictures. Closed source might be like a tv dinner where everything is almost precooked. Until you get the meal out of the box and into the microwave or oven (if the meal supports an oven), there is little you can do to change or alter the meal. But you have the advantage of no recipes to follow and it is easy per se to prepare. One shortcoming though is you do not know where the ingredients came from or how it was prepared.

Actually this tv dinner was cheaper than expected and quite good to eat. I was surprised. The portions were exacting though. Added some butter for the mashed potatoes and the corn. With open source things are a bit different. You have to go out buy all the groceries to prepare and cook the meal. There is an advantage here is that you can inspect the ingredients to make sure you have what you want. You can also either use prepared recipes, modify the prepared recipes to your likes, or you can even make up your own recipes for preparing the meal. I am no cook by any shape or means, but sometimes I like to do something different you generally will not find in a tv dinner. For example, I like to make my own buttermilk biscuits from scratch, pasta from scratch, or many other choices.

In the picture above, I made banana bread and pudding from scratch, Also have cooked pork chops to my liking, made homemade gravy, hand cut salad, and vegetables. A meal fit for a king. I can also choose the portion size of my preference, I did cheat a bit by using store bought bread. Oh well, that is part of the choices you get to make when preparing your own dinner. Mixing and matching makes dinner more fun. Hope that helps define the difference between closed source and open source.