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Software wants to be free…
What is Open Source Software (OSS)?
• Open source software refers to computer software available with its source code and under an open source license to study, change, and improve its design
• Allows anyone to : Make a new version of the software Sell it Market it
How did it start?
• The First Era - 1960-80 Development primarily in academics – Berkley,
MIT, Xerox Informal setting, Common to share OS and code
• The Second Era 1980-1990 Free Software Foundation, by Richard Stallman
• “Free as in speech not as in beer”• Start of GPL licensing
• The Third Era: early 1990s to today. Widespread diffusion of Internet access. Numerous new open source projects emerged,
most notably Linux “Open Source” licensing
How Is It Developed?
• Idea (itch) inception• “Scratching the itch” • Upload to a well known location • Software gets better by:
Informally sharing ideas Fiddling with each others' code,
• Sometimes it changes direction• As time goes on, developers come and go,
and projects become active or dormant
You would develop Open Source if…
You've gutted and rebuilt your computer 5 times since you last changed the oil in your car.
The only tan you've ever acquired comes from your monitor.
You see a good-looking girl and you DESPERATELY want her e-mail address so you can get to know her.
When you're reading a magazine and you see an underlined passage, you feel compelled to click on it.
You wake up wondering which directory you're in.
You would develop Open Source if…
Open Source and Economic Theory
• Commercial projects (proprietary software) generate income, where as Open Source reduces costs
• Short term benefits Alumni Effect Company compensation “Some” government and not for profit
organizations subsidies Customization and bug fixing
• Private benefit of customization and bug fix for programmer and the firm
Open Source and Economic Theory
• Long Term benefits - Signaling Incentive Better performance measurement Full initiative Greater fluidity Recognition Choice work
Issues with Open Source
• Forking• Documentation and support• Geared towards knowledgeable and
sophisticated users“In every release cycle Microsoft always listens to its most ignorant customers where as Linux listens to the smartest customers”
• Disproportionate contributions• Subject to “Fads”
Legal Aspects – GPL versus Open Source
• GPL One may copy and distribute the software
licensed under the GPL at will, provided others are not inhibited to do the same, either by charging them for the software itself or by restricting them through further licensing
Treated as a “virus” for proprietary software
• Open Source Allows greater liberties with licensing than the
GPL does. Allows greater promiscuity when mixing
proprietary and open source software
Popular OS softwareApache HTTP web
server• Started by Brian
Behlendorf in 1994 • Derived from
University of Illinois web server software
• 63% of web servers in World use Apache
Market Share for Active Web servers
Source Netcraft
Popular OS software
• Linux Most popular Unix based Operating System Phenomenal growth
• MySQL Popular Database software 44% of developers use MySQL
Popular OS software
• Perl Created by Larry Wall in 1987 Large number of repetitive system administration
tasks Widely accepted as a language for developing
scripts for Apache web servers
• Sendmail Developed in 1979 by Eric Allman, in UC Berkeley To solve the problem of incompatibility of the two
major computer networks on campus. In 1997, Allman established Sendmail Inc. By 1998 80% of email traffic was sent using
Sendmail
Popular OS Software
• OpenOffice.org and StarOffice• DVD ripping
http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/download.htm
• Turbocash Personal Finance http://www.turbocash.co.za/
• PDFCreator Create PDF documents on Windows
• VNC – Virtual Network Computing Control your desktop remotely http://www.realvnc.com/
• Various Games http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open_source_games
Open Source Companies
• IBM Chose to open-source Apache webserver to
bundle with its WebSphere suite Released the Secure Mailer in open source Launched the AlphaWorks site to
disseminate cutting-edge IBM technology in source
Made Linux the primary operating system on all their high end mainframe servers
Participates in about 120 OS projects like Eclipse, Derby, Geronimo and Globus
Contributed more than 500 patens, $1 Billion in Linux investments
Open Source Companies
• Novell Acquisitions of SUSE LINUX and Ximian in
2003 Powerful and well respected Linux
Distribution
• Apple Released core layers of Mac OS X Server
(Darwin) in March of 1999 Partners with the Apache Group, FreeBSD,
NetBSD, and other open source developers to work on evolving the Mac OS X platform
Open Source Companies
• HP High end servers based on the HP/Intel's jointly
developed Itanium processor technology Compaq IPAQ handhelds can run Linux, too. Offers integrated support options for customers
running open source systems on their servers.
• Sun Uses Linux on a line of small servers originally
made by Cobalt Supports open source development e.g.
• Forte IDE for Java, • Mozilla web browser
Open Source Companies
• Red Hat Software Very successful Linux vendor
• $ 5.4 B market cap, P/E = 74 Shipped more paid copies of Linux than any
other vendor Recently acquired JBoss
• SugarCRM Customize and Integrate customer-facing
business process Easily adaptable, Cost Effective, Flexible Sugar On-Demand, Sugar Cube, Sugar On-
Premise Sugarforge.com
Companies' open source strategies.
• Provide services not provided efficiently by Open Source - Red Hat, VA Linux
• Open source proprietary code to create friendly atmosphere or threaten rivals – IBM Eclipse, Intel Tiano
• Development of open source software – helping open source complement proprietary products - HP Spectrum Object Linker
• Build entire product on open source and release source code as marketing vehicle – SugarCRM, Compiere
• Imitate collaborative methodologies of open source and their teams - Collabnet
• Fight it! - Microsoft (Link to video)
Changing Software Companies mindset
• Listing programmers’ names• Encouraging widespread code sharing
within companies• Due diligence on using Open Source
and GPL High Legal and Goodwill Risks
Should you use Open Source?• 7 million computers use Linux• 1.1 million developers in NA were working on OSS
projects in Feb 2004• 600,000 mail servers use Sendmail• More than 80% of companies use OSS products• OpenSSH has 88% market share in SSH security
protocol• 64% of DBA and developers use OS database • 44% of software developers use MySQL database• 63% of all Internet web pages are hosted on Apache
web server Amazon, Yahoo and Google use OSS• Government of California is considering using more
Open Source Software than before• FTB uses Open Source extensively
5000 copies of VNC, saving $330K• Caltrans save $300K in 2004-2005
Source: http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.htmlhttp://cpr.ca.gov/report/cprrpt/issrec/stops/it/so10.htm
Can Open Source Process be transported to other industries?
• Factors to consider Electronic Information Exchange across
World Breaking projects in small, manageable
modules Infrastructure needs Cost of designing and testing Regulatory approval Numerous and unsophisticated users – few
services of peer gratification
Risks to OSS movement
• Few individuals control major products• OSS becomes part of establishment• Burnout of leading OSS pioneers
Does it still have the passion, challenge, freedom, fun
• Modesty and Supreme ability required from OSS leaders
• “Free Beer” more important to customers
• Insufficient focus on strategy• Version proliferation and
standardization issues
For more info on Open Source
• General Open Source Information(www.opensource.org)
• GNU CopyLeft license(http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html)
• List of Open Source Projects(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
List_of_open_source_software_packages)
• “The Cathedral And The Bazaar” (Eric Raymond)
• “Open Source for the Enterprise: Managing Risks Reaping Rewards” (Dan Woods, Gautam Guliani)
• “Free as in Freedom” (Sam Williams)
Unresolved Itches???
