Can’t I just read the files to see the code?
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Source code is the instructions written in a human readable programming language, that was actually typed to make the file.
Binaries are the files with computer instructions that are readable by the computer, to a person it would just look like a bunch of zeros and ones.
When you download a file, you get the binaries, so you can’t see what’s inside the file. Only the computer can read it.
Programmers make binaries because the computer can run them more efficiently, it doesn’t have to sit there, wasting time reading the human language, trying to figure out what to do, it’s already translated to the computer language for it to run directly.
“Open source” means the programmer give you the human readable version of the file, so you can read for yourself what’s inside, and you can modify it or just verify that it’s the right file when you make your own version of the binary to run.
“Closed source” means the human readable version is not available to you, so you just have to trust the programmer, or the company giving you the file, that the file is the correct version, and it does what the provider says it does.
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