Can someone explain to me what open source actually means. I

>>56032793
it is usually very user-friendly. it's just not up in your face since most users aren't interested in the source code.

what distro are you using?
a lot of distros offer ways to download the source code through a package manager
on ArchLinux: abs
on Debian: apt-get source
on Gentoo: portage (the default)
on FreeBSD: ports

Source code and a compiled binary are 2 separate things.

>>56032848

I have installed ssh before. ssh client on one side, ssh server on the other and made it operational following a quick tutorial online. My question still remains. I have only configured it to work. I have not seen its internal workings. I know its complicated, it's connected with the internal workings with the OS and kernel and bla bla bla, but I want to see it. apt-get, yum install some packages somewhere on my file system. I don't know what that enables or anything, why it requires those libraries, why doesn't it work without those libraries. I'm just a sheep following some online Linux course.

>>56032793
Open-source means exactly what those words mean together. The source code is open for any and all to read. This is different from free-ware which is software with is FREE, but which does not have a source-code distribution. Occasionally freeware is made when someone creates a great algorithm that they would like to patent and make money from, and decides to make a "sampler" or demonstration using the algorithm with some novel purpose or output.

Whether or not you can redistribute or edit the source-code of an open-source program depends on the license which no one ever reads anyways (unless you are actually a professional software developer) but GENERALLY, the folks releasing open-source software INTEND for it to be free for all and editable by all.

As for the "assembly code" in your question, Assembly code is generally not equivalent to "source-code", reason being that WHICH assembly language a machine uses depends on the processor.

Furthermore, it seems like you dont quite understand *what* source code actually IS (not to blow up your spot) since you asked how to figure out "which" compiler is used. If you download source-code and install it on your machine, the compiler used is whichever compiler YOU (or at least, the OS) use(s).
>In general, this will be the GNU compiler ("gcc") but not always.

As for "what program communicates with what other program etc", the question itself is a little muggy. I myself am not familiar with how SSH works on a high level, but I imagine that a networking course/textbook ("For Dummies" is a great series that people shrug off because of the name) will help you tremendously in your travels. I DO have some experience with web-apps, though, and for those, you cannot know what is on the other side unless THAT is open-source (or at least revealed to you), but that is a different beast in many ways.
>cont below

>>56032983
>cont
As for "programs communicating with programs" locally on one machine, it isnt too common, from what I understand. If you run postgres and a program to query databases simultaneously, you can get that to happen, but in general, most of the programs that you (or at least I) use are "stand alone" if you will. They WILL pull from libraries many times, and these libraries may not always have their source readily available on your machine, but you can (and should [and will have to]) use the internet some times to get what you want/need.
>Dont be lazy

As far as user-friendliness goes, it all depends on who wrote the code
>"Books cannot be good or evil, only well written or poorly written"

If you are new to linux and programming in general, dont start with SSH. As gay or easy as it may sound, start with a decompiled copy of Minecraft. The modern decompilers do a great job at deobfuscating the source from the java byte code and you can really get a good idea of what is going on under the hood.

Good luck!

>>56032983

I don't know why you are trying to be politically correct, but I presume it should be clear from my question that I want to see the internal workings of it all. I want to see the whole encryption algorithm in action, what sockets it opens what processes it creates, what threads and how many it creates. I want to see how! (not where in what files it stores shit. HOW! I want to see the whole algorithm of exchanging the public/private keys, the timers used etc. I want to see both client and server side of it.) the keys are generated, what random functions it uses i.e. I just want the source code. Why is it so hard to find it?

Open source means a corporate licensing workaround that works mainly as a distribution philosophy license.

Free software licenses have a copyleft. You should refer to those kind of licenses like how they should be.

OS licenses are generally compatible with Free Software licenses since the former have simple requirements.

>>56033148
If you dont want me to be politically correct, here it is... dont be a fucking idiot and dont be fucking lazy
>man ssh
>find out program is called OpenSSH
>google OpenSSH
>download sourcecode from their github
You could have condensed this into 2 retard-friendly steps but I wanted to make sure you really understood everything.

>>56033184
*When free is defined in Free Software, it does not mean gratis, as in "you can have it!!" but more of it's historical definition of "FREEDOM!!!"

>>56032962
Do you not know what source code means? You asked how you could get source, he answered. You're still here. Why?