OPEN SOURCE TECHNOLOGIES

Introduction
CS 321/CP 222
Introduction to Open Source
● The growing popularity of open source has
altered the software industry landscape in
consumers and the industry landscape in a
dramatic way in recent years.
● Open source and proprietary software are two
prominent models of software licensing.
Introduction to Open Source
● Open Source is a software-licensing model
where the source code of the software is
typically made available royalty-free to the
users of the software, under terms allowing
redistribution, modification and addition,
though often with certain restrictions.
Introduction to Open Source
● Open source software (OSS) is the
software in which users have the ability to
run, copy, distribute, study, change, share
and improve for any purpose.
Introduction to Open Source
● When we say Open Source, that means its
source code of software is available publicly
with Open Source licenses which allows
others to edit source code and distribute it.
Introduction to Open Source
● Commercial Software (Proprietary) is the model
where the software developed by a commercial entity
is typically licensed for a fee to a customer (either
directly or through channels) in object, binary or
executable code.
● The commercial entity often provides support, training,
updates and other similar services needed by
customers to efficiently use that software.
Introduction to Open Source
● The source code of the software may be made
available to certain users of the software
through special licensing or other agreements.
● But is usually not distributed to the general
public, and may not be copied or modified
except in a manner provided for in such
agreements.
Introduction to Open Source
● The models are not mutually exclusive, and
companies are increasingly finding ways to
embrace both approaches and allow them
to co-exist.
Examples of commercial software companies disclosing source code

● Real Networks with their Helix project, Computer

Associates with their Ingres release
● SAP with their release of OpenDB and
● Microsoft with their Shared Source Licensing Program.
Such source code releases may be based on terms that
allow modification and re-distribution of source code,
e.g. Windows CE.
Examples of commercial software companies disclosing source code

● The Apple MacOSX product is one such example. See

http://www.apple.com/opensource and
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,18488,
00.html.
● IBM has taken this approach to enable Linux to operate
on its entire range of hardware platforms. See
http://www.intelligententerprise.com/010810/
412e_business1_1.jhtml?_requestid=142394. a
FREE SOFTWARE
● Free software means software that respects users
freedom and community.
● Roughly, it means that the users have the freedom to
run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the
software.
● Free software may be packaged and distributed for a
free; the "free" refers to the ability to reuse it, modified
or unmodified, as part of another software package.
FREE SOFTWARE
● As part of the ability to modify, users of free
software may also have access to and study the
source code.
● Thus, “free software” is a matter of liberty, not
price.
● To understand the concept, you should think of
“free” as in “free speech,” not as in “free beer”.
FREE SOFTWARE
● Free software is easily confused with
freeware, a term describing software that
can be freely downloaded and used but
which may contain restrictions for
modification and reuse.
Free and Open source software (FOSS)
● Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is
the software in which users have the ability
to run, copy, distribute, study, change, share
and improve for any purpose.
● This is based on the historical evolution of
both open source philosophy and free
software philosophy.
The history of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
● By the late 1960s change was coming: as
operating systems and programming
language compilers evolved, software
production costs were dramatically
increasing relative to hardware.
The history of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
● A growing software industry was competing
with the hardware manufacturers.
● The cost of software products was included
in the hardware cost.
The history of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
● Leased machines required software support
while providing no revenue for software
● And some customers, able to better meet
their own needs, did not want the costs of
manufacturer's software to be bundled with
hardware product costs.
The history of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
● In the early 1970s AT&T distributed early
versions of Unix at no cost to government and
academic researchers
● But these versions did not come with
permission to redistribute or to distribute
modified versions, and were thus not free
software in the modern meaning of the phrase.
The history of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
● Unix became more widespread in the early
1980s.
● AT&T stopped the free distribution and
charged for system patches.
● As it is quite difficult to switch to another
architecture, most researchers paid for a
commercial license.
The history of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
● In the late 1970s and early 1980s, computer
vendors and software-only companies began
routinely charging for software licenses,
marketing software as "Program Products" and
imposing legal restrictions on new software
developments, now seen as assets, through
copyrights, trademarks, and leasing contracts.
The history of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
● To increase revenues, a general trend began to
no longer distribute source code (easily
readable by programmers), and only distribute
the executable machine code that was
compiled from the source code.
● One person especially distressed by this new
practice was Richard Stallman.
The history of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
● Stallman viewed this practice as ethically
wrong.
● In response, he founded the GNU Project in
1983 so that people could use computers
using only free software.
The history of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
● In response, he founded the GNU Project in
1983 so that people could use computers
using only free software.
● He established a non-profit organization,
the Free Software Foundation, in 1985, to
more formally organize the project.
The history of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
● He invented copyleft, a legal mechanism to
preserve the "free" status of a work subject
to copyright, and implemented this in the
GNU General Public License.
● He used the existing term "free software"
and founded the Free Software Foundation
to promote the concept.
The history of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
● Copyleft licenses allow authors to grant a number
of rights to users (including rights to use a work
without further charges, and rights to obtain, study
and modify the program's complete corresponding
source code)
● But requires derivatives to remain under the same
license or one without any additional restrictions.
The history of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
● Since derivatives include combinations with
other original programs, downstream
authors are prevented from turning the
initial work into proprietary software, and
invited to contribute to the copyleft
commons.
The history of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
● Later, variations of such licenses were
developed by others.
The launch of Open Source
● In 1997, Eric S. Raymond published "The
Cathedral and the Bazaar", a reflective
analysis of the hacker community and free
software principles.
● The Cathedral and the Bazaar is the
development methodology.
The launch of Open Source
● The paper received significant attention in
early 1998
● This was one factor in motivating Netscape
Communications Corporation to release
their popular Netscape Communicator
Internet suite as free software.
The launch of Open Source
● Netscape's act prompted Raymond and
others to look into how to bring free
software principles and benefits to the
commercial-software industry.
● They concluded that FSF's social activism
was not appealing to companies like
Netscape.
The launch of Open Source
● Therefore, Netscape looked for a way to
rebrand the free software movement to
emphasize the business potential of the sharing
of source code.
● The label "open source" was adopted by some
people in the free software movement at a
strategy session held at Palo Alto, California.
The launch of Open Source
● The group of individuals at the session
included Christine Peterson who suggested
"open source" (January 1998)
● Over the next week, Raymond and others
worked on spreading the word.
Informal software sharing
● However, there were still those who wished to share
their source code with other programmers and/or
with users on a free basis, then called "hobbyists"
and "hackers".
● Before the introduction and widespread public use
of the internet, there were several alternative ways
available to do this, such as computer magazines
Rights Granted by Open source software
● The right to full access to the source code.
● The right for anyone to run the program for
any purpose without restriction.
● The right to modify the source code.
Rights Granted by Open source software
● The right to distribute both the original
software and the modified software.
● The right to know about their open source
rights
END