Open Source Software
Content
1 Open Source Software
1.1 Differences between Hardware and Software
1.2 Differences between Source Code and Compiled/Binary Code
1.3 Problems affecting Software Production
Software production is 60 years old, it has created a new economic sector and some of the
wealthiest people on earth. ICT is now ubiquitous in the developed world. But the sector of ICT
isn't so healthy.
The industrialization of software production has failed almost since the beginning. Too often
software projects miss deadlines (time issue), run over budget (budget issue), ship without the very
features that justified the project at the beginning (feature issue) and deliver lower quality products.
This is because computer programming is a creative work and it is hard to manage the increasing
degree of complexity of software development. Opposite to Moore's law, software has become more
and more expensive every year.
2 Proprietary Software Development Model
Proprietary software is usually developed by a company, supplied with a license and without source
code, so every modification of the software is not allowed and it is penally persecuted. The software
is closed.
Proprietary software companies limits innovation with copyright and patents, because the source
code and the control of the software is their core business.
It is a product that must satisfy a specified market needs, it is the result of many years of work
provided by developers beneath management of sales and marketing offices.
In order to limit the complexity and communication costs, proprietary software companies, use
small groups of developers, working in isolation and organized in strict hierarchy.
Today proprietary software companies are working harder than ever to create less value than ever.
This due to old model business of “0 sum game” where in order to win someone else has to loose.
3 Free and Open Source Software
The most significant transformation in ICT is the birth of Free and Open Source Software. FOSS
has done more than revolutionize the production, it enjoys a lower defect density, has proven a far
more effective score than proprietary software and it has opened innovation.
By opening source code, FOSS allows people to freely use software and make changes or ask
someone else to make that changes for you, add new functionalities, improve software and share it
so anyone else can take advantage of it.
FOSS doesn't limit the number of people working on a problem, anyone can participate in software
production.
Today there are more than 100.000 FOSS projects, more than 2M of FOSS developers who enjoy
working on a problem, improving their skills and it's good for society.
1/4
From a recent survey FOSS has exceeded Microsoft's productive potential using a social, not an
industrial model. What the top industrialists could not achieve with proprietary software and
financial capital, FOSS succeed with community development and intellectual capital.
FOSS runs computers ranging from smart phones to Google scale super computers.
3.1 Differences between Free Software and Open Source Software
In 1984, Richard Stallman, a researcher at the MIT AI Lab, started the GNU project. He feels that
the knowledge that constitutes a running program should be free (Free Software). If it were not, a
very few, very powerful people would dominate computing.
While proprietary commercial software companies consider the source code a secret that must be
tightly protected, Stallman thinks that it must be shared and distributed, and freely available, it is
truly necessary for innovation to continue. “Standing on the shoulders of giants” (Newton).
Because public domain software can be used to make proprietary software, FS is copyrighted, has a
author and a license as well called copyleft to distinguish it from copyright, it has no restrictions
except that you can't create proprietary software from it.
In the spring of 1997, a group of leaders in the FS community, were concerned that the FS's antibusiness message was keeping the world at large from really appreciating the power of FS. Out of
this discussion came a new term to describe the software they were promoting: Open Source.
The Open Source allows greater liberties with licensing than FS does, in particular when mixing
proprietary and open-source software. OS can take all of us into a more positive and productive
economic situation.
3.2 Development model
“The Cathedral and the Bazaar” by E. Raymod compared the proprietary software model
(“cathedral”) and FOSS model (“bazaar”) and explain how the latter works better than former even
though it breaks every rule of software engineering. In “cathedral model” the software is closed,
based on small groups with strict hierarchy, working in quite isolation, with no release before its
time. The “bazaar model” resembles a great babbling bazaar, with decentralized structure and based
on peer relationships, people with different agendas and approaches, short times between releases.
FOSS is developed by a community, starting from a specific and personal necessity. Distributing it
with source code and encouraging modifications, others can add pieces of software to satisfy their
own needs. So a software evolve, grabbed code become part of other softwares or personalized,
studied and scanned for finding out errors.
This model of software developing has been possible thanks to Internet that has created a new
infrastructure for sharing and collaboration. Internet itself is built on FOSS and on open standards.
The Internet is, in many ways, the original Open Source venture. The Internet's spectacular growth
is a testament to the power of this open standards model.
3.3 Business model
For many companies “free” means without charge, and they thought that they couldn't make money
with FS. Obviously this idea was wrong. “Free as in speech, not as in beer”.
FOSS is a commodity market. Software companies and professional developers can earn money
from services they offer to other companies that can obtain better support at ower cost than internal
one. Because many companies or professional developers are involved in commercial FOSS
2/4
support you can choose from different support services instead in proprietary software support
market is a monopoly.
In FOSS the “0 sum game” of proprietary software become a “positive sum game” where it is
possible for two people to both be winners in their own way. We have a better value if cooperate
instead of trying to destroy each other and global innovation potential.
If two developers implement and share two different features, they get double value having spent
time for only one implementation. There is more benefit to playing the game than there is sitting on
the side line and waiting for the game to be decided by other people (game theory).
3.4 Why FOSS is better
3.4.1 Better Quality
Defect density rates in FOSS is far below commercial software, as much as six times less defects.
Users are tremendously useful for shortening debugging time. The finding is the bigger challenge
and with a large base of users the process of finding and fixing tend to happen more quickly.
By sharing source code, developers make software more reliable. Programs get used and tested in a
wider variety of contexts than one programmer could generate, and bugs get uncovered that
otherwise would not be found.
One can think that having access to source code can lead to security problem, but it is truly exactly
the opposite. Many security leaks have been discovered much before they were used to break a
software system, in proprietary software security leaks are discovered after they have been used.
3.4.2 Innovation
To understand how innovation works in FOSS model we can look at the work of Tim Berners Lee,
the inventor of the WWW. There have been many previous implementation of the WWW dating
back to 1945, but the work of Tim Berners Lee was the first one to actually use standards and
published as an open source model. The decision to make the WWW an open system was necessary
for it to be universal. You can't propose that something be a universal space and at the same time
keep control of it.
Patents stop innovation while sharing technologies and consider customers as innovators brings
progress. History shows how new opportunities opens from published inventions and expiration of
patents (see steam engine).
Sharing source code facilitates creativity and minimizes duplication of effort, programmers working
on complimentary projects can each leverage the results of the other, or combine resources into a
single project.
Every good work of software starts by a developer's personal need. The next best thing to having
good ideas is recognizing good ideas from your users. Innovation comes giving the users actual and
authentic role in designing the product.
3.4.3 Total Cost of Ownership
TCO is composed by license fees, maintenance fees, HW requirements, personnel training, etc.
Recent researches show that OSS costs 1/10th of proprietary sw over 3 year from acquisition.
3/4
3.5 Antropological aspects
Developing in bazaar style a project leader is still needed. He must be absolutely able to recognize
good design ideas from others, keep design robust and simple, must have communication skills in
order to build an active community.
Linux was the first project for which a conscious and successful effort to use the entire world as its
talent pool was made. The gestation period of Linux coincided with the birth of the WWW in 199394 and the takeoff of the ISP industry. The “severe effort of many converging wills” is precisely
what a project like Linux requires.
FOSS developers organize themselves for maximum productivity by self selection. It is often
cheaper and more effective to recruit self-selected volunteers from the Internet than it is to manage
buildings full of people who would rather be doing something else.
In FOSS world joy is an asset. Enjoyment predicts efficiency.
Why do people write free software almost for free? The motivation is not just altruism, but rather to
bring better code to their work. Each contributor can achieve a reputation and knowledge that
should assure him new opportunities.
4 Future of OSS
Now FOSS is pervasive, it runs computers ranging from smart phones to Google scale super
computers, you'll find it in public sector, government, health all over the world.
Gartner predict that at least 80% of all commercial software solutions will be based on OSS by
2011, and currently 50% of mission critical applications are based on OSS.
OSS will triumph simply because the closed source world cannot win a race with OS communities
that can put orders of magnitude more skilled time into a problem.
OS can develop and debug new software with the speed and creativity of science. The computer
industry needs the next generation of ideas that will come from Open Source development.
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced that any researched who accepts its grant monies for
HIV/AIDS will have to agree to share their scientific findings, this is because two decades of
secrecy and competition among AIDS researchers have impeded efforts to come up with AIDS
vaccine.
A recent research showed that Encyclopedia Britannica has more errors than wikipedia.
4/4
1.1 Differences between Hardware and Software
1.2 Differences between Source Code and Compiled/Binary Code
1.3 Problems affecting Software Production
Software production is 60 years old, it has created a new economic sector and some of the
wealthiest people on earth. ICT is now ubiquitous in the developed world. But the sector of ICT
isn't so healthy.
The industrialization of software production has failed almost since the beginning. Too often
software projects miss deadlines (time issue), run over budget (budget issue), ship without the very
features that justified the project at the beginning (feature issue) and deliver lower quality products.
This is because computer programming is a creative work and it is hard to manage the increasing
degree of complexity of software development. Opposite to Moore's law, software has become more
and more expensive every year.
2 Proprietary Software Development Model
Proprietary software is usually developed by a company, supplied with a license and without source
code, so every modification of the software is not allowed and it is penally persecuted. The software
is closed.
Proprietary software companies limits innovation with copyright and patents, because the source
code and the control of the software is their core business.
It is a product that must satisfy a specified market needs, it is the result of many years of work
provided by developers beneath management of sales and marketing offices.
In order to limit the complexity and communication costs, proprietary software companies, use
small groups of developers, working in isolation and organized in strict hierarchy.
Today proprietary software companies are working harder than ever to create less value than ever.
This due to old model business of “0 sum game” where in order to win someone else has to loose.
3 Free and Open Source Software
The most significant transformation in ICT is the birth of Free and Open Source Software. FOSS
has done more than revolutionize the production, it enjoys a lower defect density, has proven a far
more effective score than proprietary software and it has opened innovation.
By opening source code, FOSS allows people to freely use software and make changes or ask
someone else to make that changes for you, add new functionalities, improve software and share it
so anyone else can take advantage of it.
FOSS doesn't limit the number of people working on a problem, anyone can participate in software
production.
Today there are more than 100.000 FOSS projects, more than 2M of FOSS developers who enjoy
working on a problem, improving their skills and it's good for society.
1/4
From a recent survey FOSS has exceeded Microsoft's productive potential using a social, not an
industrial model. What the top industrialists could not achieve with proprietary software and
financial capital, FOSS succeed with community development and intellectual capital.
FOSS runs computers ranging from smart phones to Google scale super computers.
3.1 Differences between Free Software and Open Source Software
In 1984, Richard Stallman, a researcher at the MIT AI Lab, started the GNU project. He feels that
the knowledge that constitutes a running program should be free (Free Software). If it were not, a
very few, very powerful people would dominate computing.
While proprietary commercial software companies consider the source code a secret that must be
tightly protected, Stallman thinks that it must be shared and distributed, and freely available, it is
truly necessary for innovation to continue. “Standing on the shoulders of giants” (Newton).
Because public domain software can be used to make proprietary software, FS is copyrighted, has a
author and a license as well called copyleft to distinguish it from copyright, it has no restrictions
except that you can't create proprietary software from it.
In the spring of 1997, a group of leaders in the FS community, were concerned that the FS's antibusiness message was keeping the world at large from really appreciating the power of FS. Out of
this discussion came a new term to describe the software they were promoting: Open Source.
The Open Source allows greater liberties with licensing than FS does, in particular when mixing
proprietary and open-source software. OS can take all of us into a more positive and productive
economic situation.
3.2 Development model
“The Cathedral and the Bazaar” by E. Raymod compared the proprietary software model
(“cathedral”) and FOSS model (“bazaar”) and explain how the latter works better than former even
though it breaks every rule of software engineering. In “cathedral model” the software is closed,
based on small groups with strict hierarchy, working in quite isolation, with no release before its
time. The “bazaar model” resembles a great babbling bazaar, with decentralized structure and based
on peer relationships, people with different agendas and approaches, short times between releases.
FOSS is developed by a community, starting from a specific and personal necessity. Distributing it
with source code and encouraging modifications, others can add pieces of software to satisfy their
own needs. So a software evolve, grabbed code become part of other softwares or personalized,
studied and scanned for finding out errors.
This model of software developing has been possible thanks to Internet that has created a new
infrastructure for sharing and collaboration. Internet itself is built on FOSS and on open standards.
The Internet is, in many ways, the original Open Source venture. The Internet's spectacular growth
is a testament to the power of this open standards model.
3.3 Business model
For many companies “free” means without charge, and they thought that they couldn't make money
with FS. Obviously this idea was wrong. “Free as in speech, not as in beer”.
FOSS is a commodity market. Software companies and professional developers can earn money
from services they offer to other companies that can obtain better support at ower cost than internal
one. Because many companies or professional developers are involved in commercial FOSS
2/4
support you can choose from different support services instead in proprietary software support
market is a monopoly.
In FOSS the “0 sum game” of proprietary software become a “positive sum game” where it is
possible for two people to both be winners in their own way. We have a better value if cooperate
instead of trying to destroy each other and global innovation potential.
If two developers implement and share two different features, they get double value having spent
time for only one implementation. There is more benefit to playing the game than there is sitting on
the side line and waiting for the game to be decided by other people (game theory).
3.4 Why FOSS is better
3.4.1 Better Quality
Defect density rates in FOSS is far below commercial software, as much as six times less defects.
Users are tremendously useful for shortening debugging time. The finding is the bigger challenge
and with a large base of users the process of finding and fixing tend to happen more quickly.
By sharing source code, developers make software more reliable. Programs get used and tested in a
wider variety of contexts than one programmer could generate, and bugs get uncovered that
otherwise would not be found.
One can think that having access to source code can lead to security problem, but it is truly exactly
the opposite. Many security leaks have been discovered much before they were used to break a
software system, in proprietary software security leaks are discovered after they have been used.
3.4.2 Innovation
To understand how innovation works in FOSS model we can look at the work of Tim Berners Lee,
the inventor of the WWW. There have been many previous implementation of the WWW dating
back to 1945, but the work of Tim Berners Lee was the first one to actually use standards and
published as an open source model. The decision to make the WWW an open system was necessary
for it to be universal. You can't propose that something be a universal space and at the same time
keep control of it.
Patents stop innovation while sharing technologies and consider customers as innovators brings
progress. History shows how new opportunities opens from published inventions and expiration of
patents (see steam engine).
Sharing source code facilitates creativity and minimizes duplication of effort, programmers working
on complimentary projects can each leverage the results of the other, or combine resources into a
single project.
Every good work of software starts by a developer's personal need. The next best thing to having
good ideas is recognizing good ideas from your users. Innovation comes giving the users actual and
authentic role in designing the product.
3.4.3 Total Cost of Ownership
TCO is composed by license fees, maintenance fees, HW requirements, personnel training, etc.
Recent researches show that OSS costs 1/10th of proprietary sw over 3 year from acquisition.
3/4
3.5 Antropological aspects
Developing in bazaar style a project leader is still needed. He must be absolutely able to recognize
good design ideas from others, keep design robust and simple, must have communication skills in
order to build an active community.
Linux was the first project for which a conscious and successful effort to use the entire world as its
talent pool was made. The gestation period of Linux coincided with the birth of the WWW in 199394 and the takeoff of the ISP industry. The “severe effort of many converging wills” is precisely
what a project like Linux requires.
FOSS developers organize themselves for maximum productivity by self selection. It is often
cheaper and more effective to recruit self-selected volunteers from the Internet than it is to manage
buildings full of people who would rather be doing something else.
In FOSS world joy is an asset. Enjoyment predicts efficiency.
Why do people write free software almost for free? The motivation is not just altruism, but rather to
bring better code to their work. Each contributor can achieve a reputation and knowledge that
should assure him new opportunities.
4 Future of OSS
Now FOSS is pervasive, it runs computers ranging from smart phones to Google scale super
computers, you'll find it in public sector, government, health all over the world.
Gartner predict that at least 80% of all commercial software solutions will be based on OSS by
2011, and currently 50% of mission critical applications are based on OSS.
OSS will triumph simply because the closed source world cannot win a race with OS communities
that can put orders of magnitude more skilled time into a problem.
OS can develop and debug new software with the speed and creativity of science. The computer
industry needs the next generation of ideas that will come from Open Source development.
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced that any researched who accepts its grant monies for
HIV/AIDS will have to agree to share their scientific findings, this is because two decades of
secrecy and competition among AIDS researchers have impeded efforts to come up with AIDS
vaccine.
A recent research showed that Encyclopedia Britannica has more errors than wikipedia.
4/4
