1.

Introduction
In recent years, open source software has developed as a collaborative production. Open

source software is defined as computer software for which the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that meets the Open Source Definition or that is in the public domain. This permits users to use, change and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified forms.

2.0

The Latest Open Source Operating System (OS)

2.1

Meaning of Open Source OS

Open source refers to any software that is developed, tested, or improved through

public collaboration and distributed with the idea that the must be shared with others, ensuring an open future collaboration. The collaborative experience of many developers, especially those in the academic environment, in developing various versions of the operating system. An operating system is a collection of system programs that together controls the operation of a computer system. Operating system along with hardware, application and other system software, and users constitute a computer system. It is the most important part of any computer system. It acts as an intermediary between a user and the computer hardware. The operating system has two objectives. Open Source Operating System is the most important program that runs on a computer that is free to use, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified forms. Every general-purpose computer must have an operating system to run other programs. Operating systems perform basic tasks, such as recognizing input from the keyboard, sending output to the display screen, keeping track of files and directories on the disk, and controlling peripheral devices such as disk drives and printers.

2.2

Examples of Open Source Operating System

OpenSolaris An open source project created by Sun Microsystems to build a developer community around Solaris Operating System technology. The project is aimed at developers, system administrators, and users who want to develop and improve operating systems. As of April 2007, over 40,000 community members are registered on OpenSolaris.org, of whom over 11,000 are not Sun employees. OpenSolaris was latest released in 8th March, 2010.

Haiku Haiku is an open source operating system currently in development designed from the ground up for desktop computing. Inspired by the Be Operating System, Haiku aims to provide users of all levels with a personal computing experience that is simple yet powerful, and void of any unnecessary complexities. Haiku was latest released on 20th June, 2011.

3.0

The latest Open Source Application Software

3.1

Meaning of Open Source Application Software

Open Source Application Software (also called as end-user programs) includes

database programs, word processors, and spreadsheets. It is free to use, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified forms. In the same mean, Open source application software is software where anyone can view the source code and edit it how they want.

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Examples of Open Source Application Software

Asterisk Asterisk is an open source framework for building communications applications. Asterisk turns an ordinary computer into a communications server. Asterisk powers IP PBX systems, VoIP gateways, conference servers and more. It is used by small businesses, large businesses, call centers, carriers and governments worldwide. Asterisk is free and open source. Asterisk is sponsored by Digium and latest release was on 27th October 2010

Dovecot Dovecot is an open source for Linux/UNIX-like systems, written with security primarily in mind. Dovecot is an excellent choice for both small and large installations. It's fast, simple to set up, requires no special administration and it uses very little memory. Dovecot is among the highest performing IMAP ( Internet Message Access Protocol ) servers while still supporting the standard mbox and Maildirformats. The mailboxes are transparently indexed, which gives Dovecot its good performance while still providing full compatibility with existing mailbox handling tools. Dovecot's indexes are self-optimizing. They contain exactly what the user's client commonly needs, no more and no less.The latest released Dovecot version was Dovecot v2.1.9 on 1st August 2012.