Transcript Open Source Phenomena

Open Source Phenomena
Mohsen Saboorian <[email protected]>
What is Free Software?
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A software which grants some special rights to the user
Gratis v.s. Free (līber)
RMS basic freedom:
 The freedom to run the program, for any purpose
(freedom 0).
 The freedom to study how the program works, and
adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the
source code is a precondition for this.
 The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your
neighbor (freedom 2).
 The freedom to improve the program, and release your
improvements to the public, so that the whole
community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source
code is a precondition for this.
Free Software v.s. Open Source
Open Design
 Open Format
 Open Standard
 Raymond’s Goodbye, “free software”; hello,
“open source”
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A Quick History
GNU’s Not Unix (GNU)
 Open Source Initiatives (OSI)
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Christine Peterson and Eric Raymond first
applied in in the late 1997
 The term “Open source code” first appeared
here: Rosen, K., Rosinski, R., Farber, J., Host, D.,
UNIX System V Release 4: An Introduction, 2nd
Edition, Osborne, 1996
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A Quick History (cont.)
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Hardware-centric free software (50s, 60s):
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SHARE (A user group for the IBM 701)
DECUS (Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) Users
Group)
ADR first patented his software on 1968
In 1969 the US Department of Justice charged
IBM with destroying businesses by bundling free
software with IBM hardware. As a result of this
suit, IBM unbundled its software; that is, software
became independent products separate from
hardware.
Bill Gate’s 1976 “Open Letter to Hobbyists”:
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what hackers called “sharing” was, in his words,
“stealing”
GNU Project
GNU Project
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In 1983, Richard Stallman launched the GNU Project to
write a complete free operating system
In 1989, some GNU developers formed the company
Cygnus Solutions.
The GNU project's kernel, later called "GNU Hurd", was
continually delayed, but most other components were
completed by 1991. Some of these, especially the GNU
Compiler Collection, had become market leaders in their
own right. The GNU Debugger and GNU Emacs were also
notable successes.
The Linux kernel, started by Linus Torvalds, was released
as freely modifiable source code in 1991
Torvalds licence wasn't exactly a free software licence, but
with version 0.12 of the kernel in February 1992, he
relicensed the project under the GNU General Public
License.
Cathedral and Bazaar
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Open Source Manifesto: Raymond, E., The
cathedral and the bazaar: musings on Linux and
Open Source by an accidental revolutionary,
Revised Edition, 2001
On fetchmail project (p. 38)
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I released early and often (almost never less often than
every 10 days; during periods of intense development,
once a day).
I grew my beta list by adding to it everyone who
contacted me about fetchmail.
I sent chatty announcements to the beta list whenever I
released, encouraging people to participate.
I listened to my beta-testers, polling them about design
decisions and stroking them whenever they sent in
patches and feedback.
Cathedral and Bazaar (cont.)
Every good work of software starts by
scratching a developer’s personal itch.
 Linux world behaves in many respects like a
free market or an ecology, a collection of
selfish agents attempting to maximize utility,
which in the process produces a selfcorrecting spontaneous order more
elaborate and efficient than any amount of
central planning could have achieved. (p.
52)
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Cathedral and Bazaar (cont.)
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The ‘‘utility function’’ Linux hackers are maximizing
is not classically economic, but is the intangible of
their own ego satisfaction and reputation among
other hackers. (One may call their motivation
‘‘altruistic’’, but this ignores the fact that altruism is
itself a form of ego satisfaction for the altruist.)
Voluntary cultures that work this way are not
actually uncommon; one other in which I have
long participated is science fiction fandom, which
unlike hackerdom has long explicitly recognized
‘‘egoboo’’ (ego-boosting, or the enhancement of
one’s reputation among other fans) as the basic
drive behind volunteer activity. (p. 53)
Cathedral and Bazaar (cont.)
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Both the fetchmail and Linux kernel projects
show that by properly rewarding the egos of
many other hackers, a strong
developer/coordinator can use the Internet
to capture the benefits of having lots of codevelopers without having a project collapse
into a chaotic mess. (p. 54)
Bezroukov’s Critics
Linux security design problems
 Many problems already solved in Unix
 Microsoft beta-testing
 Linux: Cathedral model: Torvald’s
dictatorship
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Brooks, Frederik P., The mythical manmonth: essays on software engineering,
20th anniversary ed., 1995.
n  (n  1)
 Broox law:
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complexity 
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Raymond’s rejection of the law
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Halo developers (working in parallel)
Bezroukov’s critic
2
Fagel: on the Open Source
Fagel, K., Producing Open Source software,
2005.
 SVN author
 Most (sf.net: 90-95%) of Open Source
projects fail
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Download hit
 Mailing list and user community
 Out of project plan
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The importance of management
Importance of Cathedral
IBM and Eclipse ecosystem (initial $40M
investment): now over 150 software
company with 1200+ developers from 63
different countries
 Java and Open Source community
 MySQL
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Importance of the Open Source
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How importance is it for the end-user?
How importance is it for a hacker?
Lefkowitz’s critic on Raymond’s theory
Which is better?
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A binary program that I didn’t pay any money for which
will install itself (or run) if I double click on it?
A binary program that I didn’t pay any money for which
will install itself (or run) if I double click on it, and will
also put a bunch of mysterious text files in some folder,
reducing the free space available for MP3’s.
A source tarball that I didn’t pay any money for, which I
can use to build a working executable assuming that I
learn how, and have all the right developer tools,
libraries, and header files installed, and the patience to
wait.
Is your freedom restricted if...
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Your pilot needs a license to fly an airplane?
Cab and truck drivers need a license to drive?
The surgeon needs a medical license to perform
surgery on your child?
Your lawyer needs to pass the bar to practice law?
You need to have a ham radio operator’s license to
broadcast on Amateur Service frequencies?
You need to have a programming license to have
access to the source?
FOSS and …
Psychologic aspects
 Business
 Eliticism
 Revolution?
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Questions?