Lesson video

Hi, I'm Kashif your Computer Science teacher for the Computer Systems unit.

Welcome back to the last lesson in this unit.

In this lesson, we're going to be looking at open source and proprietary software.

For this lesson, you're going to need a pen, some paper and you're going to need to remove any distractions that are going to stop you from focusing.

Once you've done that, let's begin.

In this lesson you will, explore the implications of sharing programmes and discuss open source and proprietary software.

Use a programme.

Follow the link to visit the Naughty elf programme in Scratch.

Take three minutes to run the programme and explore what it does.

Pause the video to complete your task.

Task 1, Naughty elf programme.

Using the worksheet complete task one.

Resume once you're finished.

Task 1 use a programme solution.

So the elf allows you four tries to guess its lucky number, which lies between 1 and 20.

The elf picks a different number each time you play and claims you'll never be able to guess it.

Did you get the correct number? I didn't.

Let's have a look inside.

On the project page, you can run the programme and interact with it.

You are the user.

The see inside option that's been highlighted on the right.

Now, did you see this button whilst exploring the programmes behaviour? And what does this button do? Write your answers down.

Okay, let's have a look at what that button does.

So the see inside button takes you to the editor, where you can study the programme instructions.

So you can see the programming that's been written to build that programme.

There was another button which was the remix button.

Have you ever pressed this button on another person's programme? What does the button do? Write your answers down.

Okay, let's see what that button does.

So the remix button creates a duplicate of that project that you own and that you're able to modify.

Implications.

What do you like about being able to see inside and remix projects? And how do you feel about other people being able to do that with your projects? Pause the video to complete your task.

Task 2, implications.

Using the worksheet complete task 2.

Resume once you're finished.

Task 2, implications solution.

So the positives could be, I could build on other people's ideas.

I can see how an interesting programme works.

I can help spot errors and improve programmes built by others, and I can look for malicious code.

And on the other hand, I don't like others stealing my ideas.

I don't want to reveal how my programme works.

And what if other people think my code isn't good enough? Free and open source software.

Creators of a programme can choose to provide access to its source code.

Anyone can see inside the programme to understand how it works, check for errors, suggest improvements, and remix it.

This is called free as in freedom, libre or open source software.

Sometimes abbreviated as FOSS or FLOSS.

Can you think of any examples of free, libre, and open source software? Let's see if you get the ones that we've got on the next slide.

Let's have a look.

So we've got a whole range there.

Firefox, Chromium, Scratch, Libre Office, VLC, GIMP, Adacity, Inkscape, Linux, Ubuntu, Android, and Python.

And they've all got their very own users listed under.

So these are all examples of popular open source programmes.

Floss is also used extensively in science, space, machine learning and so on.

Proprietary software.

So the creators of a programme can also get users to agree to terms where the user cannot modify the software or distribute it to anyone else.

So it's the opposite of open source.

This is called proprietary software.

Proprietary software is closed source software.

The original source code is not accessible and you can't see the actual code written in the programmes or written by the programmers.

Most applications are proprietary software.

Both the Windows and Mac operating system are proprietary, as are a large number of applications that are used in most organisations, such as Microsoft Office.

At the end of this unit, as a recap in this unit you investigated different layers of computing systems. From programmes and the operating system, which was the software to the physical components that function together as a system to execute these programmes, which was the hardware.

And finally, to the fundamental binary building blocks that these components consist of, which was the logic.

I hope you got a better understanding of the difference between open source and proprietary software.

And also a better understanding of what happens under the hood in a computer system.

If you'd like to share you work with us, please do get your parents or carer's consent and you can share it with us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter tagging @Oaknational and #LearnwithOak.

Thank you for joining me on the Computer Systems unit and all the best for the future.

Thank you.