Like other open source software, such as the operating system Linux, Firefox's code is freely available for any programmer to examine and improve.

CNN: Browser choice benefits Web users

Google decided to make Android an open-source operating system, which meant that third parties could take the code, tweak it for their own needs, and sell competing Android-based products.

FORBES: The Kindle Fire and the Triumph of Open Source

It took Schaeffer only five months to analyze the setup and write code that would let him, from his laptop, tell the Scada system to open and close enough breakers to bring down the mock utility--without letting the legitimate operator see what was going on.

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Anyone from the open-source community can tinker with one part of the code and produce a custom-configured operating system.

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Beth Noveck, former deputy chief technology officer in the Obama administration, called for an open-source approach to rethinking government, making its operating system as accessible to everyone as the code that powers the Arduino device.

CNN: What if you could make anything you wanted?

CenterPoint's network was engineered by ibm and runs on open-source software, meaning anybody can access the underlying code to develop new products to ride on the communications system CenterPoint is building.

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Ubuntu is based on the Linux operating system and its development and use is governed by an open ethic that emphasises the sharing of core computer code.

BBC: China to create home-grown operating system