Introduction To FOSS

IntroductionHistorical perspective

The AlternativeLinux example

Myths and RealityReal world

Introduction To Free Software

Arijit Mukherjee1

1FSMWB Workshop, Jadavpur University, KolkataFebruary 2011

Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 license

Arijit Mukherjee Introduction To Free Software




Outline

1 Introduction to FOSS

2 Historical Perspective

3 The Alternative

4 Linux as an example

5 Myths and Reality

6 FOSS in the real world





Let’s define “software”

Technically a bunch of 0’s and 1’s, normally written in a morehuman readable form which runs a computing machine

Examples -

Operating systems - Windows, Linux, Unix, OSXBrowser - Internet Explorer, Firefox, OperaWord Processing - Microsoft Office, Open Office, LATEXNumerical Computing - MATLAB, R, OctavePhoto Editing - Adobe Photoshop, GIMPAudio visual - QuickTime, Media Player, VLCDatabase Systems - Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL... and a host of others for different purposes





Let’s define “software”

Technically a bunch of 0’s and 1’s, normally written in a morehuman readable form which runs a computing machine

Examples -

Operating systems - Windows, Linux, Unix, OSXBrowser - Internet Explorer, Firefox, OperaWord Processing - Microsoft Office, Open Office, LATEXNumerical Computing - MATLAB, R, OctavePhoto Editing - Adobe Photoshop, GIMPAudio visual - QuickTime, Media Player, VLCDatabase Systems - Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL... and a host of others for different purposes





Software Licensing

Most packages used by us are proprietary

means, you buy it or pay a license feeand you are tied by an agreement

you can not share it with your friend or neighbourit’s a black box to you - you never know what’s going onand you are not allowed to modify or improve it, even if youare capable

Is it really yours?Can we do something else? Something better?





Software Licensing









Software Licensing









Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution

“This is our world now...the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of thebaud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could bedirt-cheap if it wasn’t run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. Weexplore...and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge...and you call uscriminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias...andyou call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, andlie to us and try to make us believe it’s for our own good, yet we’re the criminals.”[The Hacker Manifesto]

In the early days, computers were exclusively academic toysAcademics knew the internals, modified the code, shared itand helped each otherThey were the original “hackers” - in labs at MIT, CarnegieMellon, Harvard...Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, Stephen Levy, New York:PenguinNon Classics,1984





Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution

“This is our world now...the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of thebaud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could bedirt-cheap if it wasn’t run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. Weexplore...and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge...and you call uscriminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias...andyou call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, andlie to us and try to make us believe it’s for our own good, yet we’re the criminals.”[The Hacker Manifesto]

In the early days, computers were exclusively academic toysAcademics knew the internals, modified the code, shared itand helped each otherThey were the original “hackers” - in labs at MIT, CarnegieMellon, Harvard...Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, Stephen Levy, New York:PenguinNon Classics,1984





“Change” started during the 70s

Software industry started to grow

They brought in measures to make software proprietary

Users lost the freedom of knowledge

1980 - The US Supreme Court upheld a patent application in theDiamond vs Diehr case

A decade later, “In re Alappat” virtually sealed the application of patentlaws over software

1993 - State Street vs Signature Financials - the US Federal Circuit ruledthat if a mathematical algorithm produces “a useful, concrete andtangible result”, it is patentable

Sounds familiar? GATT and TRIPS during the 90s?





























Can we do something better?

Is the software really yours?Can we do something else? Something better?

“Yes, We Can!”





Can we do something better?

Is the software really yours?Can we do something else? Something better?

“Yes, We Can!”





We can use FOSS

FOSS stands for Free and Open Source SoftwareFREE = FREEDOMFree as in “Free Speech”Not “Free Icecream”“Free software” is a matter of liberty, not price.





Brief History of FOSS

1983 - Richard Stallman founded the GNU Project

1985 - Stallman founded the Free SoftwareFoundation

Many GNU tools were developed - like gcc, gdb, flex,bison etc.

GNU and FSF popularized the Copyleft ideology

1991 - Linux was first released by Linus Torvalds

2000 - OSDL was founded with the goal “to be therecognized center-of-gravity for the Linux industry”

2000 - FSG was founded to specify and drive theadoption of Open Standards

2003 - Linus Torvalds joined OSDL

2007 - FSG and OSDL merged to form The LinuxFoundation





So what exactly is FOSS?

Free software is a matter of the users’ freedom to run, copy, distribute, study,change and improve the software.

More precisely:

The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make itdo what you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is aprecondition for this.The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor(freedom 2).The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others(freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chanceto benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a preconditionfor this.

The FSF philosophy: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

All such software are commonly referred as “Free/Libre Open Source Software” -FLOSS, F/OSS, FOSS





The Cathedral and The Bazaar

Traditional software development - how cathedrals were built in ancienttimes

small groups of skilled artisans carefully planned out the design inisolationeverything was built in a single effortonce built, the cathedrals were complete and little or no furthermodification was madereplace “skilled artisans” with “skilled programmers”

FOSS development is more akin to a bazaar, which grows organically

initial traders establish their own structures and begin businessmore traders join in, establish their own structures and beginbusinessthe bazaar grows, apparently in a chaotic fashion





The Cathedral and The Bazaar

Traditional software development - how cathedrals were built in ancienttimes

small groups of skilled artisans carefully planned out the design inisolationeverything was built in a single effortonce built, the cathedrals were complete and little or no furthermodification was madereplace “skilled artisans” with “skilled programmers”

FOSS development is more akin to a bazaar, which grows organically

initial traders establish their own structures and begin businessmore traders join in, establish their own structures and beginbusinessthe bazaar grows, apparently in a chaotic fashion





So why the “Bazaar”?

The bazaar method of development has been proven over timeto have several advantages -

reduced duplication of effortbuilding upon the work of othersbetter quality control: “Given enough eyeballs, all bugs areshallow”reduced maintenance costs





Benefits of Open Source

When programmers on the Internet can read, redistribute, andmodify the source for a piece of software, it evolves

People improve it, people adapt it, people fix bugs. And thiscan happen at a speed that, compared to conventionalsoftware development, seems astonishing





Benefits of Open Source

When programmers on the Internet can read, redistribute, andmodify the source for a piece of software, it evolves

People improve it, people adapt it, people fix bugs. And thiscan happen at a speed that, compared to conventionalsoftware development, seems astonishing





Linux - one example

They ask: “Aap ke PC mein kaun rehta hai? Virus yahQuickHeal?”

I say: “Thankfully, none of them. I’m safe from both.”

What do you say?





Linux - one example



What do you say?





Linux - one example



What do you say?





Why should we use Linux?

Cost

Linux comes for free

Performance

Linux performs betterWorks rather well on older systems too

Security

Linux is highly secure





Linux - Where did it come from?

Created by Linus Torvalds

with assistance from programmers around the globefirst posted on the Internet in 1991

Linux 1.0 in 1994; 2.2 in 1999; 2.6 at presentNearly 20 million users world-wide

with 1000’s of programmers enhancing it every day





It works for everyone

What are you?

Photographer, editing photos?A music lover, listening to Beatles?A movie freak?Or a geek programmer?Or just a social networker?...

Hundreds of application for all types of users

Find it, get it, use it, share it

In fact, linux may find and install it for you...





It works for everyone

What are you?

Photographer, editing photos?A music lover, listening to Beatles?A movie freak?Or a geek programmer?Or just a social networker?...

Hundreds of application for all types of users

Find it, get it, use it, share it

In fact, linux may find and install it for you...





Tools and Applications

Word processing - Open Office, LATEX

Internet/Email - Firefox, Mozilla, Thunderbird, Evolution

Graphics - GIMP, Shotwell Photo Manager, Xfig

Sound and video - Brasero, MPlayer, VLC Media Player, Audacity

Programming - Netbeans, Eclipse, IntelliJ

Database Systems - MySQL, PostgreSQL

Chat - Pidgin, Empathy

Torrent - Transmission, BitTorrent

Scientific - Octave (a Matlab equivalent)

Google helpssearch here: http://www.google.com/linux





Tools and Applications

Word processing - Open Office, LATEX

Internet/Email - Firefox, Mozilla, Thunderbird, Evolution

Graphics - GIMP, Shotwell Photo Manager, Xfig

Sound and video - Brasero, MPlayer, VLC Media Player, Audacity

Programming - Netbeans, Eclipse, IntelliJ

Database Systems - MySQL, PostgreSQL

Chat - Pidgin, Empathy

Torrent - Transmission, BitTorrent

Scientific - Octave (a Matlab equivalent)

Google helpssearch here: http://www.google.com/linux





FOSS Licenses

Copyleft agreement

“Left” is the inverse of “right”

GPL, LGPL, Apache, Creative Commons etc.A general method for making a program or other work free

All modified and extended versions of the program are free aswell





Common Myths about FOSS

It’s free

so it must be technologically inferiorwhat if I am stuck? No one will help meit must be unreliable and insecureperformance must be poor and it won’t scale

It’s hard, not user friendly, only command line, meant forgeeks...But in practice, it’s the other way round





Busting the Myths - 1

They say

it’s not user friendlyit’s hardit’s all commands from a command promptit’s for geeksit doesn’t look nice

We say

see for yourselfwhere the mind is without fear...





Let’s have a quick tour




































The Myth:Malicious hackers try to break into the software with the largestinstalled baseSo, Windows is targeted mostImplies - Linux is no more secure than Windows

The Fact:68% Web Servers are Apache21% run on Microsoft IISStill IIS suffers most - 300,000 servers affected by Code Red worm






The Myth:Malicious hackers try to break into the software with the largestinstalled baseSo, Windows is targeted mostImplies - Linux is no more secure than Windows

The Fact:68% Web Servers are Apache21% run on Microsoft IISStill IIS suffers most - 300,000 servers affected by Code Red worm






The Myth:

Open source code is vulnerable

Because hackers can find loopholes from the source code

The Fact:

Evidence begs to differ, Apache is an example

Loopholes are closed by the community

The Bottomline:

Windows vulnerability is a design issue

MonolithicEvolved from a single-user modelHeavily dependent on RPC






The Myth:



The Fact:



The Bottomline:








The Myth:



The Fact:



The Bottomline:







Evidences

Linux acquires around 85.4 % of OS base for the Top500 list (as onJune’08)Google processes 200 million searches per day, all on Linux. Itserves 4 billion Web pages per day, also on LinuxThere are about 60,000 (and counting) viruses known for WindowsSurvey reports show that GNU/Linux systems are relatively immunefrom attacks from outsiders





Technical tidbits

Linux file permissions are a barrier for unwanted softwares – likevirus/malwareDoesn’t allow auto-execution of downloaded trojan/virusI downloaded something malicious, but it can’t write to your homespace

Simple concept, enhanced securityWho needs QuickHeal then?





Technical tidbits

Linux file permissions are a barrier for unwanted softwares – likevirus/malwareDoesn’t allow auto-execution of downloaded trojan/virusI downloaded something malicious, but it can’t write to your homespace

Simple concept, enhanced securityWho needs QuickHeal then?





Cost

It doesn’t matter if a product starts out cheaply if it costs youmore down the line

FOSS costs less to initially acquireNo monopoly, means upgrade/maintenance costs are typicallyfar lessNo license management costsCan effectively use older hardwaresAs the number of servers increases, proprietary solutionsbecome increasingly costly





Big data, bigger cost

Real world data volume

YouTube serves 100 million videos every day

Chevron accumulates 2TB of data every day

2006: total data on the Internet was approx. 166 Exabytes. 2010: it reached1000 EB

1 Exabyte = 1.1 million terabytes ~ 50,000 years of DVD quality video166EB ~ 3 million * amount of information contained in all the booksever written

Avataar required 1 petabyte storage ~ a 32 yr long MP3

1998: 253 million email accounts, 2010: close to 2 billion

Oracle anyone?

How many servers you might need to process such data?

And remember, Oracle charges per CPU core

Google didn’t do Oracle; Facebook doesn’t too





Big data, bigger cost

Real world data volume

YouTube serves 100 million videos every day

Chevron accumulates 2TB of data every day

2006: total data on the Internet was approx. 166 Exabytes. 2010: it reached1000 EB

1 Exabyte = 1.1 million terabytes ~ 50,000 years of DVD quality video166EB ~ 3 million * amount of information contained in all the booksever written

Avataar required 1 petabyte storage ~ a 32 yr long MP3

1998: 253 million email accounts, 2010: close to 2 billion

Oracle anyone?

How many servers you might need to process such data?

And remember, Oracle charges per CPU core

Google didn’t do Oracle; Facebook doesn’t too





How do I use FOSS

What do do?

Study reviews

Check if the forums, IRC channels, mailing lists are active

Check for the features, requirements, training, maintenance etc.

If the decision is critical, evaluate thoroughly

Where to get it from?

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free_and_open_source_software_packages

Free Software Directory (FSF and UNESCO) - http://directory.fsf.org

Linux App Finder - http://linuxappfinder.com

Linux Applications - http://www.linux.org/apps





How do I use FOSS

What do do?

Study reviews

Check if the forums, IRC channels, mailing lists are active

Check for the features, requirements, training, maintenance etc.

If the decision is critical, evaluate thoroughly

Where to get it from?

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free_and_open_source_software_packages

Free Software Directory (FSF and UNESCO) - http://directory.fsf.org

Linux App Finder - http://linuxappfinder.com

Linux Applications - http://www.linux.org/apps





Where the mind is without fear

Is proprietary software fundamentally better supported than FOSS?

No. Two kinds of support exit for FOSS: traditional paid-for support andinformal community support.

Does proprietary software give users more legal rights than FOSS?

Essentially all proprietary software licenses also forbid lawsuits - so thisisn’t different at all!

Are FOSS program compatible with standards?

FOSS programs can implement standards, just like proprietary programscan.

Will programmers starve because of FOSS?

No; increasingly FOSS is commercially developed and supportedEric Raymond notes that 95% of all software is not developed for sale andprogrammers get paid for these












































FOSS and Software Business

Big Software companies don’t care for SMEs

Your bug and feature requests remain unattended

FOSS community cares

Even if they don’t, you can fix it yourself or hire someone to fix it

You can also make contributions to a software and give something back

May even ask for a price for the new improvement

Thus, you can promote small businesses

With your contribution the country will become self-reliantin software technology





FOSS and Software Business

Big Software companies don’t care for SMEs

Your bug and feature requests remain unattended

FOSS community cares

Even if they don’t, you can fix it yourself or hire someone to fix it

You can also make contributions to a software and give something back

May even ask for a price for the new improvement

Thus, you can promote small businesses

With your contribution the country will become self-reliantin software technology





FOSS in India

New Delhi, 2005: Meeting on the status of the Open Source Initiative inIndia, chaired by the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government ofIndia.

Observations:

The Open Source Initiative is a pro-active measure to evolve localsolutions for the country’s Information Technology (IT) problemsThis will facilitate not only usage but also build capabilities forcreating a knowledge base within the countryOperating costs of organizations will come down if India adoptsFOSS in a big way





Success Stories

Tamilnadu has adopted FOSS for its e-governance projectsKerala has adopted FOSS in its schoolsThe Central Excise Department has moved to LinuxThe government supercomputer arm, the C-DAC, has moved overentirely to GNU/LinuxThe Supreme Court has several pilot projects under wayCBSE board is currently considering introduction of FOSS at schoollevel





The Barrier

The biggest obstacle for widespread FOSS useage is the mindset

especially, the mindset of computer literate people

even more, for software professionals

because of a conditioning effect for too long

We’ve already busted the myths

Linux is no less user-friendly than windows

It’s more secure

It’s low cost

And there are plenty to choose from

The Bottomline:

We just need to change the mindset





The Barrier







It’s more secure

It’s low cost


The Bottomline:






The Barrier







It’s more secure

It’s low cost


The Bottomline:






Truth Happens!

First they ignore you...

Then they laugh at you...

Then they fight you...

Then, you WIN!





Thank You!
