IS 553 - Spring 2004 1

The Basics of Open Source

Reinhardi A. HaqiMohamed Umar Shakeel

Advanced Topics for Systems Development

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Agenda

Historical background Overview of open source Cost and benefits Open source usage guidelines Challenges & success factors Marketplace analysis Questions & Answer

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Historical Background

Free software movement started by Richard Stallman, a staff hacker at MIT in 1984.

Free means freedom to download, use, modify and redistribute.

The copyright license: GNU General Public License (GPL) – a.k.a. Copyleft (all rights reversed!)

Major rule of GPL: all derivative works must be licensed under the same terms.

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Historical background

Open source movement ≠ free software movement.

Open source movement started in 1998 by Eric Raymond and Bruce Perens.

Major difference: licensing and the meaning of “free software”.

Open source allow the creation of commercial software from open source code.Example: Red Hat Linux, start from $39.00

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Overview of Open Source

Basic idea behind open source: Software can evolve more quickly when people from around the world can read and contribute to the source code.

Key elements: voluntary participation and voluntary selection of tasks.

Participants: programmers, separated by geography, culture, and language.

Participants: do not get any money in return.

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Few Types of Open Source licenses

No license: Free and no restrictions. BSD-style license: Free and may create

proprietary software from an open code. GNU General Public License: Free to use

and all derivative works must also be free. Mozilla Public License: similar to BSD-style

license and allow developers to create proprietary add-ons.

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Cost and Benefit

Benefits: Cost-savings Access to source code Customizable Better functionality

Cost: Technical support and maintenance User training

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Usage Guidelines

Acquiring open source requires careful product selection.

Important Issues: Security Reliability Cost & benefit Flexibility Support

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Success factors

Source code documentation Release early and often Support from the management

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Challenges

Problems associated with intellectual property

Poor integration with proprietary software Unavailability of technical support

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Marketplace Analysis

Open source has started gaining market rapidly in the recent past

Some are dominating the market while some are gaining recognition fast

Many organizations world wide have started to embrace it

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Marketplace Analysis

SourceForge has reported over 80,000 projects and 800,000 participants up to 2004

Projects doubled while participants tripled between 2001 and 2003

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Open Source Market Share

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Questions?