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							 Open Source Software:
 Is it Really the Next Big Thing?



 Paul J. Dravis
 Sept. 23, 2004

 ICT Week

 Beirut, Lebanon



The Dravis Group            www.dravis.net
Much Media Coverage & Debate

“Microsoft's New Plan to License Patents Has Linux
Fans Worried”
                        Wall Street Journal - June 4, 2004


“Source of Innovation: Why even IT Heavyweights
have opened up to Open source”
                           Financial Times – June 7, 2004




The Dravis Group                                 www.dravis.net
The Attraction to OSS
      Control costs of initial software licensing and
       upgrades
      Increase the flexible use and interchange of data
       and information
      Minimize information security risks
      Reduce reliance on proprietary software
      Increase the control over and access to intellectual
       property




The Dravis Group                                  www.dravis.net
But Questions Persist
  How well does OSS work?
  Can Open Source scale to meet needs today and in
   the future?
  What are the best approaches for implementing it?
  How well does Open Source co-exist with
   proprietary software?
  What are the legal issues?




The Dravis Group                           www.dravis.net
OSS Market Dynamics
  Significant penetration in the Internet
  Momentum driven by Linux (GNU/Linux), but many
   other Solutions exist
  Offerings extend from low-end (Embedded) to high-
   end (Grid) computing
  The desktop remains a challenge




The Dravis Group                           www.dravis.net
More than the Linux OS
  Operating Systems
       Linux (Redhat, SuSe, Debian, others), FreeBSD, etc.
  Server Applications
       Apache, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SendMail, Samba
  Desktop Applications
       OpenOffice, Evolution, Mozilla, KDE, GNOME, etc.

  Development Tools
       Perl, PHP, Python, various Content Management
  Others
       WikiPedia, Linux Terminal Server, ERP, CRM, Messaging

The Dravis Group                                    www.dravis.net
Apache – An OSS Leader
  Web servers manage +3 billion WWW pages
  Used on 67% of 51.6 million public web sites
  Available for all major operating systems




                                  Netcraft (June 2004)




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Multiple Hardware Platforms

                                               Grid
                                            Computing




                                              Mainframe/
                              Technical        Clustered
                              Workstation




                              Desktop/
                   Handheld    laptop
                    Devices




            Embedded
             Systems




The Dravis Group                                           www.dravis.net
Private Sector Use is Broad
  Internet Services
       Amazon, Afilias, Google, NTT/Verio, Verisign, Yahoo
  Financial Services
       CS First Boston, Goldman Sacks, Merrill Lynch, Morgan
       Stanley, Reuters, India Stock Exchange
  Entertainment
       Industrial Light and Magic, DreamWorks, Pixar, Sony
       Animation, Regal Entertainment
  Energy
       Royal Dutch Shell, WesternGeco, Amarada Hess
  Medical/Healthcare
The Dravis Group                                             www.dravis.net
Interest is Global
 Not aligned with any geographic region, economic
 group or political philosophy.
     Australia                 Philippines
     Brazil                    Pakistan
     China/Japan/South Korea   Thailand
     Denmark                   Spain
     European Commission       South Africa
     Germany                   Sweden
     India                     United Kingdom
     Malaysia                  United States




The Dravis Group                                www.dravis.net
Government Motives for OSS
  Control software licensing and upgrades costs
  Access to intellectual property
  Reduce reliance on proprietary development
   organizations
  Promote software use in the public sector as a
   public good
  Some seek to “mandate” OSS, while others seek
   “consideration” of OSS




The Dravis Group                           www.dravis.net
Selected Case Studies
      Afilias
       Support the Internet's .ORG registry with PostgreSQL database running
       on Sun Solaris
      Verisign
       Over 1,100 Linux servers support their internet services, along with
       Nagios, an OSS systems management solution
      Tivo
       Linux supporting +1 million receivers used by customers, and its back-end
       servers
      City of Largo, Fl
       Most of the city's 650 employees use Linux and other OSS to address
       many information processing needs.
      Sao Paulo, Brazil – The Telecenter Project
       Free computer use and Internet access to marginal neighbourhoods in 128
       centers using Debian Linux & Linux Terminal Server
      Goa (India) Schools Computer Project
       Recycled PCs with Redhat Linux & Linux Terminal Server in 125 schools



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Proprietary Vendor Support
BEA Systems – applications optimized for Linux
BMC Software - Linux infrastructure / service management needs
Borland Software - provides Linux support for Delphi development tool
Computer Associates - 50 products addressing the Linux market
Hewlett Packard - pursues and coordinates a variety of OSS initiatives
IBM Corp. - has various Linux initiatives
Novell - acquisition of Ximian and SUSE
Oracle - Linux support for database, application server and E Business Suite
SAP AG – LinuxLab, working with MySQL to support OSS databases
Sun Microsystems - Linux desktop, StarOffice, Evolution, support for Java
Veritas Software - storage management for Linux and MySQL



The Dravis Group                                               www.dravis.net
Recent Corporate News
 Computer Associates
      Open Source version of Ingres database
 Sun Microsystems
      Open Source release of Solaris operating system
 Hewlett Packard
      Support MySQL database, Jboss application server, SendMail
      email server
 IBM
 Some organisations pursue a Linux strategy, others
  focus on an OSS strategy




The Dravis Group                                        www.dravis.net
Microsoft, Shared Source and OSS
 In 2001 announced its Shared Source Initiative for
  sharing Windows source code with governments
 Shared Source does not allow users to modify code
  or turn it into derivative Windows programs
 April 5, 2004 released Windows Installer XML a
  toolset to build Windows installation packages from
  XML source code. Released under the Common
  Public License




The Dravis Group                             www.dravis.net
Selected Financial Data
     Major IT organizations cite billions in OSS revenue
     Redhat Market cap: $4.5B TTM sales: $129M
     MySQL VC - $18M
     JBOSS VC - $10M
     Sourcefire VC - $18M
     Novell Purchased Zimian $20M, SuSe $210M




The Dravis Group                                 www.dravis.net
Where are the Opportunities?
 New applications are needed
 Skilled technical staff is in short supply
 Support infrastructures require improvement
 Documentation needs to be written
 Hardware device driver and multimedia support can
  be improved
 And others




The Dravis Group                          www.dravis.net
OSS Licenses
  Over 40 different OSS licenses exist
           GNU General Public License (Linux, MySQL)
           Berkeley Software Distribution License (FreeBSD,
            PostgreSQL, Apple’s OS X is a derivative work)
           Mozilla Public License
  Limited Open Source case law exists
  Dual licensing is an option




The Dravis Group                                      www.dravis.net
Lessons from Implementing OSS
  Solid project planning is required
  Review both OSS and proprietary alternatives
  OSS can be mixed with proprietary software
  An OSS application does not always require an OSS
   operating system
  Migration to OSS can be gradual




The Dravis Group                           www.dravis.net
Lessons from OSS Development
      Be practical about what can be achieved
      Understand the license terms
      Most projects will start and remain small
      End-users are part of an OSS community
      Pay attention to “Look and Feel”
      There will be projects failures
      Leadership, focus and persistence are required




The Dravis Group                                www.dravis.net
Our Observations
  Implementations are evolutionary, not
   revolutionary
  Open standards and interoperability may be more
   important in the long term
  OSS is one component of an IT strategy
  Most OSS is functional equivalents to proprietary
   software. Will there be innovation?
  OSS extends across the entire software stack
  How do content protection and Digital Rights
   Management fit into the equation?



The Dravis Group                            www.dravis.net
A Closing Quote

“The very existence of open-source alternatives often
acts as a force for greater openness and transparency.

The open-source model will never replace capitalism or
live up to the most Utopian claims of its most
enthusiastic supporters. ”
                             The Economist - June 11, 2004




The Dravis Group                                www.dravis.net
Thank You!

The Dravis Group
San Francisco, CA
www.dravis.net


Paul J. Dravis
paul@dravis.net




The Dravis Group    www.dravis.net