BA370 Open Source Software

• Feller, J. & Fitzgerald, B. (2000/2002) Understanding Open Source Software.
• Raymond, E. (1999) The Cathedral and the Bazaar.
• Fink, M. (2002) The Business and Economics of Linux and Open Source.
• Moody, G. (2002) Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution.
• Rosen, L. (2004) Open Source Licensing.

• Google, Nov. 29, 2006: "open source": ≈ 270M results. (Iraq: 192M; sex: 422M; money: 723M; beer: 125M).
  

• Relationship between compiled/interpreted language and protection of intellectual property?

• A little history & some major players:

Richard Stallman: GNU, Free Software Foundation	Linus Torvalds (Linux)	Tim Berners-Lee: HTTP, HTML	Larry Wall: Perl	Guido van Rossum: Python	John Ousterhout: Tcl
What is an OS? Kernel & everything else ==> Linux & GNU ==> What should it be called?

• Some examples of well-known OSS:

• Linux and FreeBSD OSs.
• Apache HTTP server.
• Open Office.
• Sendmail.
• BIND.
• Mozilla/FireFox (Netscape).
• GCC (e.g., gcc/g++), gdb.
• X Window.
• Programming languages such as Python, Perl, Tcl/Tk and PHP.

• Feb. 3, 1998: from 'Free' to 'Open Source:'
• Eric Raymond (The Cathedral & the Bazaar):
• Treating your users as co-developers is your least-hassle route to rapid code improvement and effective debugging.
• Given a large enough beta-tester and co-developer base, almost every problem will be characterized quickly and the fix obvious to someone (Torvalds: Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.)
• If you treat your beta -testers as if they are your most valuable resource, they will respond by becoming your most valuable resource.
• Provided the development coordinator has a communications medium at least as good at the Internet, and knows how to lead without coercion, many heads are inevitably better than one.

• Larry Augustin (Linux International, VA Linux)  
• John "maddog" Hall (Linux International)
• Christine Peterson (Foresight Institute)
• Sam Ockman (Sillicon Valley LUG)
• Open  Source Initiative & Open Source Definition (Bruce Perens):

• Free redistribution.
• Source code included.
• Allows modification and derived works. Derivatives must be allowed to follow the OSD.
• Redistribution can only be restricted when patches are offered with the source and the patches follow the OSD.
• No discrimination against persons or groups.
• No discrimination against fields or endeavor.
• All rights attached to the program carry over to its users.
• License is not specific to a product or its distribution.
• License must not infect other software.
• Open software is not necessarily free-of-charge; e.g. MySQL.
• Open software is licensed under a variety of licenses.
• OSS goes to business:

• Linux space: Red Hat, Suse (now Novell), VA Linux (now VA Software), mandrake (now Mandriva), etc.
• Sugar CRM
  
• Compiere ERP
• Pentaho business intelligence
• OpenVista health care record management

• Problem: Why does OSS exist? Who supplies the goods?
• Individuals?
• Businesses?

• Individual contributors: solve a problem and share the solution with the world:
• Ethics.
• Staunch belief in OSS.
• Spite.
• Recognition.
• OSS community as a home.
  
• Reputation.
• Future payoffs.

• Itch --> scratching --> risk minimization through open sourcing (e.g., Linux, cups).
  
• Open source as a business approach (taken from Larry Augustin; presentation for the OEMBA, Portland, OR., Sep. 29th, 2006):
• Increases customer involvement, buy-in, branding, ecosystem.
• Improves product quality.
• Decreases sales & marketing cost.
• Decreases research & development cost.
• Decreases long-term maintenance cost.
• Lowering the 'stack cost:'
• SAP (ERP) allowing MySQL as the central database.
• Lowering the overall stack price increases cost space to run your apps and buy your services.

• Problem: Is OSS only in the 'knockoff' business?