Open Source software can be found everywhere, from WiFi routers to the largest web sites on the Internet. This presentation looks at how it all got started and what it can mean for you.
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Open Source and You
1. Open Source and You Jeff Stoner This presentation is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0. For details, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/
7. Pioneered “open source” with the GNU General Public License (GPL,) the first in a long line of software licenses that grant and protect certain freedoms of both the user and developer.
11. One of the key provisions requires the unrestricted distribution of a program's source code (the human-readable form of a program) if the binary version of the program is distributed to others.
12. Example: if I give or sell you a program that is licensed under the GNU GPL, I must make available the source code, too.
40. A program that's Open Source means someone can take responsibility to update it and keep it around “forever.”
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42. If you don't need a support contract, you pocket the difference.
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44. With Open Source, you always get the upgrades (support contracts differ.)
45. With Open Source, many times you get security updates faster than proprietary software.
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Hinweis der Redaktion
Stallman wanted to modify the printer's programming to send out notices when print jobs completed or when the printer jammed. Xerox put a license on the software that prohibited him from doing this. Stallman wanted the system to work the way he wanted it to work, not the way Xerox told him it should work. Photo of Richard Stallman is Copyright, Victor Powell. It is used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en)
The GNU Project is an attempt to write a complete UNIX operating system using nothing but open source software. The Free Software Foundation is the legal foundation for the free software movement. It provides employment for some programmers working on the GNU Project as well as publishing, education and political campaigns in support of free software.
One of the core values of the free software movement is the belief that all users should have the freedom to modify a program to suit their needs. The fact that most open source software is free (costs no money) is irrelevant and not a central tenant to the movement. The GNU GPL has other stipulations.
The Open Source Initiative ( http://www.opensource.org ) is responsible for defining what Open Source means and reviewing software licenses to determine compatibility with that definition. There are numerous software licenses that comply with the Open Source Definition.
Personal observations: - I emailed the author of the 'lsof' program, asking him if he could incorporate an idea I had for the program. The next day, he had made the changes and posted a new version I could download and use. - A user of the Tomboy Note application (sticky notes for your desktop) filed a bug requesting the removal of an annoying confirmation box. I volunteered my time to make the modifications to the program, submitting my changes back to the original developer. After he reviewed the code, my changes were officially incorporated into the program.
Microsoft Office 2010 Pro (the full version) costs well over $400 retail. Each individual application (word processor, spreadsheet, slide presentation and email applications) costs over $130 if purchased separately. OpenOffice Suite from Oracle costs under $100. It comes with word processor, spreadsheet, slide presentation, database and drawing applications. OpenOffice.org, the downloadable Open Source edition costs $0. Windows 7 costs anywhere between $200 and $400, retail. Fedora and Ubuntu, 2 popular desktop GNU/Linux operating systems costs $0.
Personally, I've spent hundreds of dollars on software that no longer exists. If they were Open Source, I would have the opportunity to keep those programs around for my use.
For some proprietary software, the support contract can be priced as a percentage of the initial software price, it can charged on a per-seat or per-incident basis – sometimes all you get is an email address and no guarantee anyone will respond. Open Source software and support services are completely separate.
For example, a proprietary software program may not charge to upgrade from 5.0 to 5.1 but may require purchasing all new licenses to go from 5.1 to 6.0. Open Source licenses do not govern support contracts so how upgrades are supported is entirely dependent on the contract itself. The software itself is Open Source. Microsoft's “Patch Tuesday” happens once a month. Open Source patches generally happen as they're fixed. The sooner you're updated, the less time you're exposed to security threats. How long do you want to be vulnerable?
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