A recurring theme at LinuxWorld Expo was the idea of the community spirit of open source.

Let's explain what I mean by that. A lot of people mis-undersand the the term 'free software' and take it that it means the software does not need to be paid for. While in most cases that applies, the term free software generally means 'free to use and modify', that's why it's often used with 'open source'. Because we have access to the source we can check it out, modify it, improve it. For a more in depth discussion, read this post.

For some, the open source model appeals very much because of this ability to make changes and improve or customize the software to their own ends. From the developers perspective, opening the source also means that other people can look at the code, improve it and hopefully provide those improvements and enhancements back into the main code base.