Project on Open Source Software
Content
1
The Role of Open Source in Today’s Software Industry
Project by:Pranav Malhotra 8097. BBS 2-C
2
INDEX
What is Open Source ? Open Source vs Free Software. Mandatory Industrial Requirements. Linux and its impact on software industry. The Growing Share of Linux Ecosystem. Apache HTTP Server.19 Comparative Features. The future of open source.
3 5 6 10 16
21 23
Bibliography.
3
What is Open Source?
Open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology. Before the term open source became widely adopted, developers and producers used a variety of phrases to describe the concept; open source gained hold with the rise of the Internet, and the attendant need for massive retooling of the computing source code. Opening the source code enabled a selfenhancing diversity of production models, communication paths, and interactive communities. Subsequently, a new, three-word phrase "open source software" was born to describe the environment that the new copyright, licensing, domain, and consumer issues created.
What is Open Source Software ?
Open-source Software is computer software that is available in source code form for which the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, and improve the software. Open source licenses meet the requirements of the Open Source Definition. Some open source software is available within the public domain. Open source software is very often developed in a public, collaborative manner. Open-source software is the most prominent example of open-source development and often compared to (technically defined) user-generated content or (legally defined) open content movements. The term open-source software originated as part of a marketing campaign for free software. A report by Standish Group states that adoption of open-source software models has resulted in savings of about $60 billion per year to consumers.
4
Open Source viz-a-vi Free Software
“Open source is a development methodology; free software is a social movement” Critics have said that the term “open source” fosters an ambiguity of a different kind such that it confuses the mere availability of the source with the freedom to use, modify, and redistribute it. Developers have used the alternative terms Free/open source Software (FOSS), or Free/Libre/open source Software (FLOSS), consequently, to describe open source software which is also free software. The term “open source” was originally intended to be trademarkable; however, the term was deemed too descriptive, so no trademark exists. The OSI would prefer that people treat Open Source as if it were a trademark, and use it only to describe software licensed under an OSI approved license. OSI Certified is a trademark licensed only to people who are distributing software licensed under a license listed
5 on the Open Source Initiative's list.
Open source software and free software are different terms for software which comes with certain rights, or freedoms, for the user. They describe two approaches and philosophiestowards free software. Open source and free software (or software libre) both describe software which is free from onerous licensing restrictions. It may be used, copied, studied, modified and redistributed without restriction. Free software is not the same as freeware, software available at zero price. The definition of open source software was written to be almost identical to the free software definition. There are very few cases of software that is free software but is not open source software, and vice versa. The difference in the terms is where they place the emphasis. “Free software” is defined in terms of giving the user freedom.
6 This reflects the goal of the free software movement. “Open source” highlights that the source code is viewable to all and proponents of the term usually emphasize the quality of the software and how this is caused by the development models which are possible and popular among free and open source software projects.
7
Mandatory Industrial Requirements to be complied to Qualify as Open source Software.
Open source doesn't just mean access to the source code. The distribution terms of open-source software must comply with the following criteria:
1. Free Redistribution
The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. 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. Where some form of a product is not distributed with source code, there must be a well-publicized means of obtaining the source code for no more than a reasonable reproduction cost preferably, downloading via the Internet without charge. The source code must be the preferred form in which a programmer would modify the program. Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed. Intermediate forms such as the output of a preprocessor or translator are not allowed.
3. Derived Works
The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.
8
4. Integrity of The Author's Source Code
The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the license allows the distribution of "patch files" with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license must explicitly permit distribution of software built from modified source code. The license may require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original software.
5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.
6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor.
The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.
7. Distribution of License
The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.
8. 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. If the program is extracted from that distribution and used or distributed within the terms of the program's license, all parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original software distribution.
9
9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software
The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the licensed software. For example, the license must not insist that all other programs distributed on the same medium must be open-source software.
10. License Must Be Technology-Neutral
No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style of interface.
Courtesy- http://opensource.org/docs/osd.
10
11
12
Linux and its Impact on other Operating system Industry.
Today's academics and business professors are constantly reminding us of Schumpeter's work (Hamel 1998), the need to re-invent your industry or to change the rules of your game (Markides 1998). These essential strategies for today's competitive and innovative companies have typically been found in the software manufacturing industry; with such profit-seeking corporations as Microsoft, IBM, Cisco systems and Sun Microsystems. However in the early 1990's a new organisational form embracing the open-source movement radically challenged the supremacy of large multinationals; this organisation is called Linux. The software industry typically sees new organisational forms occurring quickly and establishing strong market dominance, however Linux went against many of the traditional concepts typically thought of as the norm in the software industry. This paper will establish the development of Linux, complexity theory and its relationship to Linux, the Linux business model, rules governing Linux and the possible lessons that future managers can learn. Comprehensive ranges of secondary sources have been used to compile a detailed but accurate picture of this fascinating story of Linux. The very origins of Linux lie in the open-source model created by Richard Stallman, who in the early 1980's when working at MIT became extremely unhappy with the proprietary approach to software development. Stallman found that when he was trying to develop new software for Xerox printers, Xerox refused to provide the vital source code making modification extremely difficult. Stallman saw the future of software manufacturing as taking this very industrialist approach whereby large software manufacturers kept their vital source code (product knowledge) from their customers/competitors in order to gain competitive advantage and standardisation. Stallman believed that the source code should be freely available and soon left his job at MIT and developed his own project called GNU with a free operating code using a specific variation of Unix. Open-source was born whereby the source-code would be provided with the operating platform and 'copy-left' was introduced where 'copyrighting a program and then adding specific distribution terms
13 that give everyone the right to use, modify and distribute the code' (Lighthouse case Study 1999). Stallman saw the development of software as a public utility not one which is dominated by public companies - who didn't always produce the most functional software. Linus Torvalds first discovered a Unix like program called Minix while studying at University in Helsinki, Finland. Linus posted his new Unix-like kernel on the Internet and asked for suggestions on what people 'disliked/liked about Minix...and for any practical solutions' (Moody 2001),’ whilst maintaining that the operating system was free. At this stage the Linux community was created and as a result of which actors in the community could communicate to Linus via the technological infrastructure of the Internet. Ironically the success of Linux as an open source project was heavily dependent on another open source project for its success the Internet. 'The World Wide Web has made it possible to implement virtually any conceivable scheme for organising Linux information' (Browne 1997). The following diagram shows why:
14
Traditional companies often have to compromise between the richness (quality of information) and the reach of information (number of people reached). However the Internet and most specifically the proliferation of e-mail ensured that the trade-off between the richness and reach was minimal as the diagram depicts. Therefore actors in the Linux community could be in Brazil, America or Europe and still be exchanging highly detailed information 24 hours a day, seven days a week and, most importantly, when they felt motivated. The open source movement within the Linux community supported by the Internet enabled more and more hackers to contribute to the Linux
15 project and ultimately adding more lines of code to the Linux kernel. As the community grew so did the reliability, functionality, complexity and commercial suitability of the Linux operating code. However the open source movement and the social co-ordination of the Linux project meant that individuals were more interested in personnel reputation and open source ideologies of the hacker community rather than personal financial gains. The open source movement is highly visible and individual hackers are mainly motivated by 'developing a name for themselves or enhancing a reputation.This led to one of the main advantages Linux had over contemporary software manufacturers in that millions of similar like-minded individuals can add to the community with different perspectives increasing the probability that any bugs will be fixed through incremental improvements. The following diagram depicts the virtuous value chain within Linux from the release of the operating code to evolutionary, self-organising cycle that makes the Linux open source community so formidable.
16
The Growing Share of Linux Ecosystem as of 2010
Extracts from a report by International Data Corporation (IDC) Today Linux has clearly earned its stripes as an enterprise solution running infrastructureoriented workloads, and over the past few years, it has been making a steady transition into a solution used as the foundation for business-oriented workloads. In parallel with this workload transition, the industry has seen a healthy evolution of an ecosystem consisting of related software, hardware, and support services surrounding Linux. This ecosystem grew to over $21 billion in 2007 and is expected to more than double in revenue by 2011. Figure 1 shows the ecosystem enabled by the Linux SOE. The growth shown in Figure 1 is driven by three major components: software, hardware, and services. IDC’s projection calls for software revenue to grow faster than either hardware or services revenue. This forecast takes into consideration the shift from infrastructure-oriented workloads to more mainstream business-oriented workloads.
17
IDC believes that systems integration activities represent the largest opportunity for Linux and open source services, including migration, integration, and deployment. IT education and training services remain one of the smallest open source opportunities but are often considered a door opener to more value-added services such as consulting or systems integration. IDC anticipates that the demand for services related to open source products will grow above the market average for all IT services because of the relative early position on the technology adoption curve that open source solutions hold today. Of particular note, total software revenue on the Linux platform, at $10 billion today, currently accounts for 4% of an overall total of $242 billion. That share is expected to grow to more than 9% by 2011, or $31 billion in Linux-related software revenue in a total market that will grow to $330 billion.
18
The graphs are sourced from IDC (2010).
19
Apache HTTP Server
The Apache HTTP Server, commonly referred to as Apache is web server software notable for playing a key role in the initial growth of the World Wide Web. In 2009 it became the first web server software to surpass the 100 million web site milestone. Apache was the first viable alternative to the Netscape Communications Corporation web server (currently known as Oracle iPlanet Web Server), and has since evolved to rival other Unix-based web servers in terms of functionality and performance. The majority of web servers using Apache run a Unix-like operating system. Apache is developed and maintained by an open community of developers under the auspices of the Apache Software Foundation. The application is available for a wide variety of operating systems, including Unix, GNU, FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris, Novell NetWare, Mac OS X,Microsoft Windows, OS/2, TPF, and eComStation. Released under the Apache License, Apache is characterized as open-source software. Since April 1996 Apache has been the most popular HTTP server software in use. As of February 2010 Apache served over 54.46% of allwebsites and over 66% of the million busiest. Apache is primarily used to serve both static content and dynamic Web pages on the World Wide Web. Many web applications are designed expecting the environment and features that Apache provides. Apache is redistributed as part of various proprietary software packages including the Oracle Database and the IBM WebSphere application server. Mac OS X integrates Apache as its built-in web server and as support for its WebObjects application server. It is also supported in some way by Borland in the Kylix and Delphi development tools. Apache is included withNovell NetWare 6.5, where it is the default web server. Apache is included with many Linux distributions.
20 Apache is used for many other tasks where content needs to be made available in a secure and reliable way. One example is sharing files from a personal computer over the Internet. A user who has Apache installed on their desktop can put arbitrary files in Apache's document root which can then be shared. Programmers developing web applications often use a locally installed version of Apache in order to preview and test code as it is being developed.
21
Comparative features
22
Apache
Vs
Microsoft ISS
23
The future for open source
Looking forward, I believe that users have an important role to play in creating and sustaining our grid and cluster technology base. If users are serious about avoiding vendor lock-in and keeping costs low, then they need to be more aggressive in supporting grid and cluster standards (and thus encouraging competition), and/or in adopting and supporting open source solutions (to ensure a vibrant open source software base).
They should also demand more from open source suppliers in terms of end-toend solutions. There are success stories out there: in addition, to UniCluster, I can mention the work of caBIG, the MEDICUS system for sharing medical images, MPIG for distributed application execution, Taverna and Kepler for workflow, and the Virtual Data Toolkit and the LHC Computing Grid stacks for processing high energy physics data (among many others). But we need more such, so that we can expand the set of user needs addressed by turnkey solutions and thus reduce barriers to entry.
In science, where commercial solutions do not always meet unique requirements, more thought is needed on long-term sustainability of open source software. While there are some bright spots in this regard—for example, the US NSF’s Office of Cyberinfrastructure support of Globus and Condor, and the UK OMII’s support of OGSA-DAI and Taverna—the overall situation is less than ideal. A lot of money is being spent, but too much of that funding goes to projects where code is developed for some specific short-term purpose and then discarded when a project finishes. That’s too bad. A more sensible strategy would relate all projects to an overall strategy of building and sustaining a broadly useful grid computing platform. Perhaps it is time to revisit priorities and plan international cooperation aimed at meeting application needs.
24
Bibliography.
www.opensource.org en.wikipedia.org sourceforge.net www.wikinvest.com linux-india.org/ www.kernel.org/ www.lpi.org httpd.apache.org.
The Role of Open Source in Today’s Software Industry
Project by:Pranav Malhotra 8097. BBS 2-C
2
INDEX
What is Open Source ? Open Source vs Free Software. Mandatory Industrial Requirements. Linux and its impact on software industry. The Growing Share of Linux Ecosystem. Apache HTTP Server.19 Comparative Features. The future of open source.
3 5 6 10 16
21 23
Bibliography.
3
What is Open Source?
Open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology. Before the term open source became widely adopted, developers and producers used a variety of phrases to describe the concept; open source gained hold with the rise of the Internet, and the attendant need for massive retooling of the computing source code. Opening the source code enabled a selfenhancing diversity of production models, communication paths, and interactive communities. Subsequently, a new, three-word phrase "open source software" was born to describe the environment that the new copyright, licensing, domain, and consumer issues created.
What is Open Source Software ?
Open-source Software is computer software that is available in source code form for which the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, and improve the software. Open source licenses meet the requirements of the Open Source Definition. Some open source software is available within the public domain. Open source software is very often developed in a public, collaborative manner. Open-source software is the most prominent example of open-source development and often compared to (technically defined) user-generated content or (legally defined) open content movements. The term open-source software originated as part of a marketing campaign for free software. A report by Standish Group states that adoption of open-source software models has resulted in savings of about $60 billion per year to consumers.
4
Open Source viz-a-vi Free Software
“Open source is a development methodology; free software is a social movement” Critics have said that the term “open source” fosters an ambiguity of a different kind such that it confuses the mere availability of the source with the freedom to use, modify, and redistribute it. Developers have used the alternative terms Free/open source Software (FOSS), or Free/Libre/open source Software (FLOSS), consequently, to describe open source software which is also free software. The term “open source” was originally intended to be trademarkable; however, the term was deemed too descriptive, so no trademark exists. The OSI would prefer that people treat Open Source as if it were a trademark, and use it only to describe software licensed under an OSI approved license. OSI Certified is a trademark licensed only to people who are distributing software licensed under a license listed
5 on the Open Source Initiative's list.
Open source software and free software are different terms for software which comes with certain rights, or freedoms, for the user. They describe two approaches and philosophiestowards free software. Open source and free software (or software libre) both describe software which is free from onerous licensing restrictions. It may be used, copied, studied, modified and redistributed without restriction. Free software is not the same as freeware, software available at zero price. The definition of open source software was written to be almost identical to the free software definition. There are very few cases of software that is free software but is not open source software, and vice versa. The difference in the terms is where they place the emphasis. “Free software” is defined in terms of giving the user freedom.
6 This reflects the goal of the free software movement. “Open source” highlights that the source code is viewable to all and proponents of the term usually emphasize the quality of the software and how this is caused by the development models which are possible and popular among free and open source software projects.
7
Mandatory Industrial Requirements to be complied to Qualify as Open source Software.
Open source doesn't just mean access to the source code. The distribution terms of open-source software must comply with the following criteria:
1. Free Redistribution
The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. 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. Where some form of a product is not distributed with source code, there must be a well-publicized means of obtaining the source code for no more than a reasonable reproduction cost preferably, downloading via the Internet without charge. The source code must be the preferred form in which a programmer would modify the program. Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed. Intermediate forms such as the output of a preprocessor or translator are not allowed.
3. Derived Works
The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.
8
4. Integrity of The Author's Source Code
The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the license allows the distribution of "patch files" with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license must explicitly permit distribution of software built from modified source code. The license may require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original software.
5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.
6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor.
The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.
7. Distribution of License
The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.
8. 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. If the program is extracted from that distribution and used or distributed within the terms of the program's license, all parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original software distribution.
9
9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software
The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the licensed software. For example, the license must not insist that all other programs distributed on the same medium must be open-source software.
10. License Must Be Technology-Neutral
No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style of interface.
Courtesy- http://opensource.org/docs/osd.
10
11
12
Linux and its Impact on other Operating system Industry.
Today's academics and business professors are constantly reminding us of Schumpeter's work (Hamel 1998), the need to re-invent your industry or to change the rules of your game (Markides 1998). These essential strategies for today's competitive and innovative companies have typically been found in the software manufacturing industry; with such profit-seeking corporations as Microsoft, IBM, Cisco systems and Sun Microsystems. However in the early 1990's a new organisational form embracing the open-source movement radically challenged the supremacy of large multinationals; this organisation is called Linux. The software industry typically sees new organisational forms occurring quickly and establishing strong market dominance, however Linux went against many of the traditional concepts typically thought of as the norm in the software industry. This paper will establish the development of Linux, complexity theory and its relationship to Linux, the Linux business model, rules governing Linux and the possible lessons that future managers can learn. Comprehensive ranges of secondary sources have been used to compile a detailed but accurate picture of this fascinating story of Linux. The very origins of Linux lie in the open-source model created by Richard Stallman, who in the early 1980's when working at MIT became extremely unhappy with the proprietary approach to software development. Stallman found that when he was trying to develop new software for Xerox printers, Xerox refused to provide the vital source code making modification extremely difficult. Stallman saw the future of software manufacturing as taking this very industrialist approach whereby large software manufacturers kept their vital source code (product knowledge) from their customers/competitors in order to gain competitive advantage and standardisation. Stallman believed that the source code should be freely available and soon left his job at MIT and developed his own project called GNU with a free operating code using a specific variation of Unix. Open-source was born whereby the source-code would be provided with the operating platform and 'copy-left' was introduced where 'copyrighting a program and then adding specific distribution terms
13 that give everyone the right to use, modify and distribute the code' (Lighthouse case Study 1999). Stallman saw the development of software as a public utility not one which is dominated by public companies - who didn't always produce the most functional software. Linus Torvalds first discovered a Unix like program called Minix while studying at University in Helsinki, Finland. Linus posted his new Unix-like kernel on the Internet and asked for suggestions on what people 'disliked/liked about Minix...and for any practical solutions' (Moody 2001),’ whilst maintaining that the operating system was free. At this stage the Linux community was created and as a result of which actors in the community could communicate to Linus via the technological infrastructure of the Internet. Ironically the success of Linux as an open source project was heavily dependent on another open source project for its success the Internet. 'The World Wide Web has made it possible to implement virtually any conceivable scheme for organising Linux information' (Browne 1997). The following diagram shows why:
14
Traditional companies often have to compromise between the richness (quality of information) and the reach of information (number of people reached). However the Internet and most specifically the proliferation of e-mail ensured that the trade-off between the richness and reach was minimal as the diagram depicts. Therefore actors in the Linux community could be in Brazil, America or Europe and still be exchanging highly detailed information 24 hours a day, seven days a week and, most importantly, when they felt motivated. The open source movement within the Linux community supported by the Internet enabled more and more hackers to contribute to the Linux
15 project and ultimately adding more lines of code to the Linux kernel. As the community grew so did the reliability, functionality, complexity and commercial suitability of the Linux operating code. However the open source movement and the social co-ordination of the Linux project meant that individuals were more interested in personnel reputation and open source ideologies of the hacker community rather than personal financial gains. The open source movement is highly visible and individual hackers are mainly motivated by 'developing a name for themselves or enhancing a reputation.This led to one of the main advantages Linux had over contemporary software manufacturers in that millions of similar like-minded individuals can add to the community with different perspectives increasing the probability that any bugs will be fixed through incremental improvements. The following diagram depicts the virtuous value chain within Linux from the release of the operating code to evolutionary, self-organising cycle that makes the Linux open source community so formidable.
16
The Growing Share of Linux Ecosystem as of 2010
Extracts from a report by International Data Corporation (IDC) Today Linux has clearly earned its stripes as an enterprise solution running infrastructureoriented workloads, and over the past few years, it has been making a steady transition into a solution used as the foundation for business-oriented workloads. In parallel with this workload transition, the industry has seen a healthy evolution of an ecosystem consisting of related software, hardware, and support services surrounding Linux. This ecosystem grew to over $21 billion in 2007 and is expected to more than double in revenue by 2011. Figure 1 shows the ecosystem enabled by the Linux SOE. The growth shown in Figure 1 is driven by three major components: software, hardware, and services. IDC’s projection calls for software revenue to grow faster than either hardware or services revenue. This forecast takes into consideration the shift from infrastructure-oriented workloads to more mainstream business-oriented workloads.
17
IDC believes that systems integration activities represent the largest opportunity for Linux and open source services, including migration, integration, and deployment. IT education and training services remain one of the smallest open source opportunities but are often considered a door opener to more value-added services such as consulting or systems integration. IDC anticipates that the demand for services related to open source products will grow above the market average for all IT services because of the relative early position on the technology adoption curve that open source solutions hold today. Of particular note, total software revenue on the Linux platform, at $10 billion today, currently accounts for 4% of an overall total of $242 billion. That share is expected to grow to more than 9% by 2011, or $31 billion in Linux-related software revenue in a total market that will grow to $330 billion.
18
The graphs are sourced from IDC (2010).
19
Apache HTTP Server
The Apache HTTP Server, commonly referred to as Apache is web server software notable for playing a key role in the initial growth of the World Wide Web. In 2009 it became the first web server software to surpass the 100 million web site milestone. Apache was the first viable alternative to the Netscape Communications Corporation web server (currently known as Oracle iPlanet Web Server), and has since evolved to rival other Unix-based web servers in terms of functionality and performance. The majority of web servers using Apache run a Unix-like operating system. Apache is developed and maintained by an open community of developers under the auspices of the Apache Software Foundation. The application is available for a wide variety of operating systems, including Unix, GNU, FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris, Novell NetWare, Mac OS X,Microsoft Windows, OS/2, TPF, and eComStation. Released under the Apache License, Apache is characterized as open-source software. Since April 1996 Apache has been the most popular HTTP server software in use. As of February 2010 Apache served over 54.46% of allwebsites and over 66% of the million busiest. Apache is primarily used to serve both static content and dynamic Web pages on the World Wide Web. Many web applications are designed expecting the environment and features that Apache provides. Apache is redistributed as part of various proprietary software packages including the Oracle Database and the IBM WebSphere application server. Mac OS X integrates Apache as its built-in web server and as support for its WebObjects application server. It is also supported in some way by Borland in the Kylix and Delphi development tools. Apache is included withNovell NetWare 6.5, where it is the default web server. Apache is included with many Linux distributions.
20 Apache is used for many other tasks where content needs to be made available in a secure and reliable way. One example is sharing files from a personal computer over the Internet. A user who has Apache installed on their desktop can put arbitrary files in Apache's document root which can then be shared. Programmers developing web applications often use a locally installed version of Apache in order to preview and test code as it is being developed.
21
Comparative features
22
Apache
Vs
Microsoft ISS
23
The future for open source
Looking forward, I believe that users have an important role to play in creating and sustaining our grid and cluster technology base. If users are serious about avoiding vendor lock-in and keeping costs low, then they need to be more aggressive in supporting grid and cluster standards (and thus encouraging competition), and/or in adopting and supporting open source solutions (to ensure a vibrant open source software base).
They should also demand more from open source suppliers in terms of end-toend solutions. There are success stories out there: in addition, to UniCluster, I can mention the work of caBIG, the MEDICUS system for sharing medical images, MPIG for distributed application execution, Taverna and Kepler for workflow, and the Virtual Data Toolkit and the LHC Computing Grid stacks for processing high energy physics data (among many others). But we need more such, so that we can expand the set of user needs addressed by turnkey solutions and thus reduce barriers to entry.
In science, where commercial solutions do not always meet unique requirements, more thought is needed on long-term sustainability of open source software. While there are some bright spots in this regard—for example, the US NSF’s Office of Cyberinfrastructure support of Globus and Condor, and the UK OMII’s support of OGSA-DAI and Taverna—the overall situation is less than ideal. A lot of money is being spent, but too much of that funding goes to projects where code is developed for some specific short-term purpose and then discarded when a project finishes. That’s too bad. A more sensible strategy would relate all projects to an overall strategy of building and sustaining a broadly useful grid computing platform. Perhaps it is time to revisit priorities and plan international cooperation aimed at meeting application needs.
24
Bibliography.
www.opensource.org en.wikipedia.org sourceforge.net www.wikinvest.com linux-india.org/ www.kernel.org/ www.lpi.org httpd.apache.org.
