This document lists and maintains a set of definitions of commonly used terms in the open source technology world. See the current glossary here.

The motivation behind this document is to help remove the confusion and conflation that often occur when different stakeholders discuss open source, with or without a commercial angle, and make open source more accessible to newcomers. While people we've been working in open source for a long time may find these terms "obvious", it's sadly not the case for new developers who are creating projects or contributing to open source for the first time. And they are popping up around the world every single day.

Without a common set of precisely-worded definitions of the fundamental concepts, it's difficult, even counter-productive sometimes, to have second-order discussions on topics like: how do I build a vibrant community? which license should I choose to maximize adoption? how do I position my commercial offering vis-a-vis the open source community version? The list goes on...

This list of definitions is compiled by the team at OSS Capital, and we will continue to add and update it as time goes on. We welcome the community to participate by commenting, adding new terms, and proposing edits, so this glossary can evolve into a foundational document that can help all open source stakeholders establish a common set of understanding, in order to have more fruitful discussions.