What is the Meaning & Definition of open system

An open system is the computer system that enables operation on it through open standards.
When he speaks of systems for different disciplines of science, it is considered open that can make exchanges with their environment, as it receives flows from the environment and is suitable to make changes or adjustments in their behavior according to inputs received. These systems are praised as an alternative for the exchange of information and the simplification in the Organization and communication.
For computer science, open systems are systems configured so that enable the interoperability, portability, and use of open standards. I.e., systems that provide free access to his customisation and reconfiguration.
Historically, open systems are those based on Unix, which allowed the inclusion of programming interfaces and interconnections developed by third parties or by the exchange between different developers when setting up a computer system. In the ' 90s, grew the rise of the Single UNIX Specification.
Later and with the birth of the new Millennium took place a new boom of open systems, speaking of the competitive advantages that a product designed in Unix has about another close. While developers of software and hardware companies resisted to this growth, the popularity of open systems did not expect and are now spread around the world as an economic and relevant alternative in computer science.
One of the software that is developed under an open system is Linux, the free operating system that today plant you competition to Windows around the world. Many companies such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard were able to adopt it, now praising the advantages and the triumph of the code open above the closed.
New companies also start their businesses through products open, as Sun Microsystems does with your OpenOffice.org package, which includes Microsoft Office-like applications in its functionality, but that can be freely used and modified.