A new development in the mobile operating system market brings an open source convert to the table. As of Symbian's announcement today, three of the five major players can now be considered open source systems. This pits Microsoft and Apple's closed systems directly against Google, Palm and Symbian in an epic battle of ideology.

Most people who even know the term, think of open source software as software you don't have to pay for. I'd like to use my tiny blog as a platform to help eliminate that limited and even incorrect view. I think the best way to explain the reality of open source is to give an example of what makes it different from other types of software.