Open System

Open system may refer to:

  • Open system (computing), one of a class of computers and associated software that provides some combination of interoperability, portability and open software standards, particularly Unix and Unix-like systems
  • Open system (systems theory), a system where matter or energy can flow into and/or out of the system, in contrast to a closed system, where energy can enter or leave but matter may not
  • Open system (control theory), a feedforward system that does not have any feedback loop to control its output in a control system
  • Open system, in management science a system that is capable of self-maintenance on the basis of throughput of resources from the environment
  • Open Systems Interconnection, an effort to standardize computer networking
  • Open and closed system in social science
  • Open system in thermodynamics or in physics
  • Open system of learning, where information is sourced from multiple sources
  • Open-system environment reference model, one of the first reference models for enterprise architecture
  • Open Systems Accounting Software, accounting and business software
  • Open Systems International, supplier of open automation solutions for utilities in the electric, oil & gas, transport, and water industries
  • Open Systems AG, a company headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland
  • Open Source Software system
  • Open Government system
  • Open publication system
  • Open Distribution system (Example: Peer-to-peer file sharing system)

Famous quotes containing the words open and/or system:

    “We were young, we were merry, we were very very wise,
    And the door stood open at our feast,
    When there passed us a woman with the West in her eyes,
    And a man with his back to the East.”
    —Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861–1907)

    “[Madness] is the jail we could all end up in. And we know it. And watch our step. For a lifetime. We behave. A fantastic and entire system of social control, by the threat of example as effective over the general population as detention centers in dictatorships, the image of the madhouse floats through every mind for the course of its lifetime.”
    —Kate Millett (b. 1934)