Your computer’s CPU doesn’t understand human language or code, so programs are compiled from human-readable programming languages (like C++, Rust, etc.) into binary machine code. Machine code is basically just a bunch of CPU instructions and data that are formatted specifically for your CPU’s architecture (depending on if it’s x86, ARM, etc.).

Most of the time, when you install a program/app/game, you’re only getting the compiled binary in your CPU’s machine code, so you couldn’t view the original “source code” without going through a complex process called “decompilation”. And even then, you wouldn’t have the legal rights to share or modify that code for others to use.

For something to be considered truly “open source”, it not only makes the original source code available to the user, it also publishes that code under a license like the GPL which gives the user certain rights to use, copy, and/or modify the code.