MD Computing MD Computing provides leading edge information on the use and application of computers and computer technology in medicine and healthcare systems. MD Computing publishes manuscripts on topics of relevance to computers in medicine and in healthcare information systems. The journal is the official journal of the Society for the Internet and Medicine. When programmers on the Internet can read, redistribute, and modify the source for a piece of software, it evolves. Anyone interested can participate in a cooperative effort to improve the software.
People contribute to the program, improve it, adapt it, and fix it.
The open-source community have learned that this rapid evolutionary process produces better software than the traditional closed model, in which only a very few programmers can see source, and the programming information is kept a secret in order to sell a product. The focus was to create a freely accessible complete software system, thereby removing the obstacles to cooperation imposed by owners of proprietary software. The FSF supports the freedoms of speech, press, and association on the Internet, the right to use encryption software for private communication, and the right to write software unimpeded by private monopolies. This is accomplished by promoting the development and use of free software in all areas of computing. Their primary focus is helping to develop the GNU operating system.