Open Source The Free Software World

							Dr. Mohamed F. Tolba
January 2009




Open Source:
The Future of Software
Agenda

 Definition of Open Source

 History of Open Source

 Engineering Open Source

 Open Source Quality, Security & Flexibility

 Spectrum of Open Source Products

 Open Source Licenses

 Future of Open Source
Open Source Software


Open Source Software (OSS) is software
for which the programming code is
available to the users so that they may:
   Copy it
   Study it
   Use it
   Modify it , and
   Redistribute it
  Open Source Definition

1. Free Redistribution
  The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving
  away the software. The license shall not require a royalty or
  other fee for such sale.
2. Source Code
  The program must include source code, and must allow
  distribution in source code as well as compiled form.
3. Derived Works
  The license must allow modifications and derived works, and
  must allow them to be redistributed.
4. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
  The license must not discriminate against any person or
  group of persons.
Open Source Definition Cont’d


5. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product
   The rights attached to the program must not depend on
   the program's being part of a particular software
   distribution.
6. License Must Not Restrict Other Software
   The license must not place restrictions on other software
   that is distributed along with the licensed software.
7. License Must Be Technology-Neutral
   No provision of the license may be predicated on any
   individual technology or style of interface.
Commercial Business Model

                                    commercial Company

                                          Software
                                        Development
                                     Engineering/ Product
                                        Management




                                                  Softwar
                                      Resourc


                                                     e
                                        es
                                      Go to Market Sales,
                      Money           Marketing, Support,
      Customers                      Services, Engineering,
                                        Product Mgmt
    Partners OEMs
                    Whole Product
Open Source Business Model
                             Professional Open            Roadmap Design
                              Source Company              Software “The
                                                          Project”
                                 Software
                               Development               Contributions
                               Engineering/
                                  Product                                  Community
                               Management/                Contributions
                                Ecosystem
                               Development                 Use Cases
                                                           Peer Review



                                              Software
                                  Resources
                                                           Testing
                                                           Documentation
                                                           Translations
                               Go to Market
 Customers                                                 Forum Help
               Money         Sales, Marketing,
 Partners                    Support, Services,            Bug Fixes
  OEMs                         Engineering,                Scalability
             Whole Product    Product Mgmt
                                                           Configuration
What is New in Open Source?


   New Set of Software Products and Suppliers
   New Design/Development Methodology
   New Impact on Pricing
   New Set of Licenses
   New Trend of Customer Prospects
   New Career Path for Programmers
   New Business Model
Open Source History

    1983            1990           1993           1999


             1989          1991           1998           2007


     Before 1983
      o    Software communities like-minded with today’s Open
           Source communities existed. Examples include the IBM
           SHARE group.
      o    Examples of Software developed in this period and still
           used today: SPICE, TeX and the X Window System
     1983
      o    Richard Stallman launched the GNU Project to write a
           complete operating system free from constraints on use of
           its source code
      o    He coined the term "free software" and founded the
           Free Software Foundation to promote the concept
    Open Source History Cont’d

    1983             1990          1993           1999


             1989           1991           1998           2007


    1989
     o     the first version of the GNU General Public License was
           published
     o     Some GNU project components like the GNU compiler, GNU
           Emacs and debugger were big successes
    1990
     o     Apache HTTP Server became the most used web server
           software - a title that still holds as of 2008
    1991
     o     Linux was released as freely modifiable source code
     o     The combination of Linux kernel and the GNU project led to
           the first free operating system
Open Source History Cont’d


   1998
    o   Netscape Communications Corporation released
        Netscape Communicator Internet suite as free
        software. This code is today better known as Mozilla
        Firefox
    o   Sun Microsystems released the StarOffice (office
        suite) as free software under the GNU Lesser General
        Public License. The free software version was renamed
        OpenOffice.org
   2004
    o   Sun Microsystems released the Java Development Kit
        OpenJDK under the GNU General Public License
Numbers of Open Source
Projects 2008

 The two biggest open source listing
 sites:

     www.sourceforge.net which has 157,565
      projects listed
     www.freshmeat.net which has 45,428
      projects listed
Open Source Products List

   Applications
    o XWiki - Wiki Application
   Business Process
    o Intalio - BPM tools
    o Pentaho - BI platform
   Compatibility Tools
    o CodeWeavers - Tools to run Windows apps on Linux
   Content Management
    o Alfresco - Enterprise content management solutions
    o eZSystems
   CRM
    o SugarCRM - Customer Relationship Management
      solutions
Open Source Products List (Cont’d)

   Database
    o GreenPlum - Database servers for business intelligence
    o Ingres - RDBMS based on Ingres
    o MySQL - MySQL RDBMS
    o Sleepycat Software - RDBMS based ob Berkeley DB
      (now part of Oracle)
   Developer Support
    o ActiveState - Open source language tools (Perl, PHP,
      etc)
    o CollabNet - On-demand collaboration tools for
      distributed development
    o GlassBox - Diagnostic tools for Java programmers
   Document Management
    o KnowledgeTree - Document management system
Open Source Products List (Cont’d)

   Linux Distributions
    o Linspire - Desktop
    o Mandriva - Desktop & Enterprise
    o Red Hat - Desktop & Enterprise
    o Xandros - Desktop
   Network Software
    o OpenClovis - Platform software for carrier grade telco
       systems
    o Vyatta - Network Infrastructure software for routers &
       switches
   Report Writer
    o JasperSoft - Report Generator
   Security
    o SourceFire - Network security products based on Snort
% use of Open Source Projects in
companies using Open Source




                     (Forrester Research, 2006)
Engineering Open Source Code

   Closed source software development normally
    follows a linear, spiral or iterative model of
    development, i.e. software development goes
    through all planning, design,
    implementation phases recursively or linearly
    as in the waterfall model.
   Open source software development follows an
    evolutionary model for development where
    the software never reaches a final state and
    keeps on evolving according to customer
    needs.
The Cost of Open Source


   Open source gives you maximum control at
    minimum cost
   Using open source software can cut your
    development time and budget by 50 %
   Adoption of Open Source 2005 resulted in $60
    billion per year savings to consumers


                           (Standish group 2006)
Why Open Source?
Failure Rates

  Some popular commercial systems in the
   1995 have an average failure rate of 23%,
   while Linux has a failure rate of 9% and the
   GNU utilities have a failure rate of only 6%.
  It is reasonable to ask why a globally
   scattered group of programmers, with no
   formal testing support or software
   engineering standards can produce code
   that is more reliable than commercially
   produced code.


                                    (Fuzz Tests, 2001)
Motivations

The top motivations given for participating in
OSS/FS development were as follows:
  intellectually stimulating (44.9%)
  improves skill (41.3%)
    work functionality (33.8%)
    code should be open (33.1%)
    non-work functionality (29.7%)
    obligation from use (28.5%)



                          (Boston Consulting Group, 2003)
OSS Developer Groups

Open source developers could be divided into
four groups:
  Learning and Fun (29%): for non-work needs
    and intellectual stimulation.
  Hobbyists (27%): need the code for a non-
    work reason.
  Professionals (25%): for work needs and
    professional status.
    Believers (19%): believe source code should
     be open.

                          (Boston Consulting Group, 2003)
Features of Open Source

   Open Source is Flexible
    o   The source code is available, so it can be altered to
        suit your needs.
    o   A program can change in ways the author never
        intended or dreamed of!

   Open Source is Cost Effective
    o   Support can become competitive; and therefore
        cheap!
    o   cost sharing: many developers share the
        development costs of the same product
Features of Open Source                           (Cont’d)


   Open Source Developers are motivated
    o   programmers write better code
    o   They usually write code they need and want to write
        rather than code they are assigned
   More Security and less bugs
    o   Peer review allows bugs to be discovered and fixed
        early
    o   Viruses, “spyware,” etc. are almost non-existent!
   The code will survive!
    o   While the loss of a major corporate contributor, it will
        never mean the death of a piece of Open Source
        software.
Who Uses Open Source?
“Governments”
  Brazil : An open source pioneer in Government
    o   The Presidency website
    o   The Government website
    o   The government intranet The National Department of
        Transportation Infrastructure DNIT
    o   SEAE : The Brazilian System for Competition Defense is
        composed by the Secretariat for Economic Monitoring
        (SEAE) of the Ministry of Finance.
    o   Public Digital Portal : This project aims at bringing
        the Internet services to 3000 public schools located in
        poor areas
  Germany
        The Munich migration is the largest public sector
        complete migration in Europe. Approximate size is
        16,000 users, 14,000 desktops, 300 pieces of software
        including 170 business applications.
  Others: Venezuela, Ecuador, France - French parliament,
   French National Assembly, Paris, Arles; Italy – Rome
Who is Involved with Open Source?
“Organizations and Affiliations”
    The Free Software Foundation GNU
     helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues surrounding
     freedom in the use of software.
    The Linux Foundation
     promotes, protects and standardizes Linux by providing unified resources and
     services needed for open source to successfully compete with closed
     platforms.
    The Eclipse Foundation
     formed to advance the creation, evolution, promotion, and support of the
     Eclipse Platform and to cultivate both an open source community and an
     ecosystem of complementary products, capabilities, and services.
    OASIS
     International consortium that drives the development, convergence, and
     adoption of e-business standards.
    ODF Alliance
     The ODF alliance works globally to educate policymakers, IT administrators,
     and the public on the benefits and opportunities of the Open Document Format
    Open Invention Network
     Open Invention Network is an intellectual property company that was formed
     to promote Linux by using patents to create a collaborative environment
OSS Licenses


     “BSD” Berkeley Software Distribution
              (Most Permissive)



                    More than 50 OSS
                    Certified Licenses




         “GPL” General Public License
              (Most Restrictive)
BSD License (Most Permissive)


  You may use the code and do anything with it:
   o Ship it in commercial products.
   o Make changes, sell the changed product.
  never give back the changed source code
  Mostly used by researchers, academics and
   companies
  the IP stack in Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X
   are derived from BSD-licensed software.
GPL Licenses (Most Restrictive)

    Very popular, most restrictive.
    Restriction:
     o if you distribute a changed version, you
       must share your changes
    As of August 2007
     o    GPL accounted for nearly 65% of the free
         software projects listed on the web.
    Used in Linux, Word press
What do all licenses have in
common?

   Free redistribution, no royalties
   Source code must be available, and
    redistributable
   Source code can be modified
   No discrimination against persons or groups
   No discrimination against any field (e.g., it
    cannot say “For educational use only”)
Open Source Conferences

    OSBC: Open Source Business Conference (March
     2008)
    The Utah Open Source Conference (August 2008)
    The Fourth International Conference on Open
     Source Systems – OSS (September 2008)
    Europe Open Source Think Tank (September 2008)
    Open Source Developers' Conference (November
     2008)
    Open World Forum (November 2008)
Open Source Future

   Open Source will be a strategic tool for open and
    collaborative businesses.
   40% of jobs in the information technology sector
    will be linked to Open Source applications before
    2014.
   Through 2011, 50% of Global 2000 IT
    organizations will implement a formal open-source
    adoption and management policy.
Open Source Future


  By 2012, at least 50% of direct IT commercial
   revenue attributed to open-source products and
   services.
  Through 2013, most of mainstream IT projects
   using (OSS) will not achieve cost savings over
   closed-source alternatives.
  90% of market-leading, cloud-computing
   providers will depend on OSS to deliver products
   and services before 2013.
References

    Roy T. Fielding. Shared leadership in the apache project. Communications of
     the ACM, 42(4):42–43, April 1999.
    Brian Fitzgerald. The transformation of open source software. MIS Quarterly,
     30(3), 2006
    Chris Rasch, "A Brief History of Free/Open Source Software Movement",
     (online) available at URL: http://www.aptenix.com/history/text.html
    Richard Stallman, "Why Software Should Be Free", April 1992(online)
     available as URL: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/shouldbefree.html
    Margit Osterloh, "Open Source Software Development: Just Another Case of
     Collective Invention?", Research Policy, Elsevier. vol.36, pp.147-171, January
     2007.
    YANG Lin-cun, "Legal Issues and Countermeasures On Open Source Software
     and its licenses", Intellectual Property Publishing House, Beijing, pp. 31-67,
     August2004.
    Chorng-Guang Wu, James H.Gerlach, Clifford E. Young. "An Empirical Analysis
     of Open Source Software Developers' Motivations and Continuance
     Intentions", Information & Management, Elsevier. vol.44,pp.253-
     262,January2007.
    Feinberg Donald, “The Growing Maturity of Open-Source Database
     Management Systems”, Gartner, November 2008
    Brodkin Jon, “Open source impossible to avoid, Gartner says”, (online)
     available as URL:http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/092007-open-
     source-unavoidable.html