What does "full source package" mean

Question

I am currently installing an operating system on an FPGA card that I have (on its microprocessor). Although, when doing some research, I have come across some OS's that are opensource, but others that are "full source." Does anyone happen to know if full source means opensource (or available for free)?

Thank you in advance

Answer 1

"Full source" probably means that you can build the operating system but that it is not open source. If it was open source, they would use that term instead of "full source".

You have to look at the license for the operating system to see if it is open source. If it is not open source, there will be restrictions on what you can do with the source code of the operating system.

The Open Source Initiative has a good definition of "open source": http://opensource.org/osd

There are a bunch of details, but the summary is:

Open source software is software that can be freely used, changed, and shared (in modified or unmodified form) by anyone. Open source software is made by many people, and distributed under licenses that comply with the Open Source Definition.

Answer 2

Jamey is right.

"Full source" might mean this:

• You can get the OS, but it might cost money. You can also get the source code; I dunno whether or not there might be a further additional fee to get it.
• Nobody can distribute modified versions. Therefore, if the vendor goes out of business, maybe no new versions will ever be released.
• There might be other restrictions on what you can do with the software and/or the source code.

"Open source" means you can almost surely get the source code for free, and make whatever changes you want. It also means that (if the original vendor goes bankrupt) someone else might take over maintainership and start releasing further new versions for free.