Hello,

I am curious about the following regarding open source code. Imagine 5 people download the Firefox source code and makes major changes to it, ading features that they want, and removing things they don't like etc.

1)Who then decides which codes changes make it to the Firefox program that is available?

2)Can each of those versions made available as Firefox online, resulting in many different versions of the same thing?


Also, let's say I write some code, and then make it open source. Does this mean that even I as the original writter of the code, if I want to use it in another project, that new project has to be open source too?

Basically, I like the idea of open source and would like to share some code which would be helpful to others. However, I am a bit worried about people making changes to it that I may not have wanted(project going wrong direction etc), and also perhaps being too many different versions of the project. Also it woud seem strange if I could not use the very code I wrote, in future projects I write.

Perhaps what I need is a "Dummies guide..." but so far I have come up with legal-like documents. Anybody already know the answer to the above questions?

Thanks in advance,

Aristotel