The main languages out of which web applications are built - whether it's Perl or Python or PHP those are all open source languages. So the infrastructure of the web is open source... the web as we know it is completely dependent on open source.

Mitch Kapor

Empowerment of individuals is a key part of what makes open source work, since in the end, innovations tend to come from small groups, not from large, structured efforts.

Tim O'Reilly

I think, fundamentally, open source does tend to be more stable software. It's the right way to do things.

Linus Torvalds

Intellectual property is an important legal and cultural issue. Society as a whole has complex issues to face here: private ownership vs. open source, and so on.

Tim Berners-Lee

If you want to build an open source project, you can't let your ego stand in the way. You can't rewrite everybody's patches, you can't second-guess everybody, and you have to give people equal control.

Rasmus Lerdorf

Proprietary software keeps users divided and helpless. Divided because each user is forbidden to redistribute it to others, and helpless because the users can't change it since they don't have the source code. They can't study what it really does. So the proprietary program is a system of unjust power.

Richard Stallman

I think open source is an evolutionary idea for humanity, this idea of transparency. It played out for us in the technology world, but it also played out with the idea of a truth and reconciliation commission and Wikipedia.

Megan Smith