General introduction to Open Source

Outline Who am I? Open Source Legal Framework Open Source around you Please contact me!

What is Open Source?

Bart Van Loon

2nd April 2009


The next 45 minutes. . .

1 Open SourceWhat is it?Background and HistoryWhy use it?How to use it?

2 Legal FrameworkOpen Source LicensesSimilarities with commercial licensesDifferences with commercial licenses

3 Open Source around youEuropeBelgiumSchoten


Who am I?

Bart Van Loon

1989 – 1999: lived in Schoten

2003: introduced to OpenSource

2005: studied ComputerScience, Mathematics, ArtificialIntelligence

2006: started first company(Picture by Pitslamp.be)

http://pitslamp.be


Zeropoint.IT

facilitates software development outsourcing to Pakistan

strong focus on Open Source software and philosophy

international company, running for 99% on Open Sourceinfrastructure


What is it?

Open SourceIs it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a. . .

Kind of Technology?

Movement?

Software Distribution Model?

Business Model?

Software License Property?


What is it?

Open SourceIs it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a. . .

Kind of Technology?

Movement?

Software Distribution Model?

Business Model?

Software License Property!


Background and History

Some HistoryOnce upon a time. . .

1984: GNU project of Richard Stallman at MIT

1985: start of Free Software Foundation

1991: First release of Linux kernel by Linus Torvalds

1993: Development of sourceforge.net

1994: Red Hat is founded (commercial support anddistribution of GNU/Linux)

1995: Community starts on Apache Web server

1998: Term “Open Source” is coined

sourceforge.net


Background and History

BackgroundFLOSS?

Confusion about the name: Free Software.

Free <vs> Free ?

It’s about Freedom ⇒ Libre!

or was it “Open Source”?

FLOSS: Free/Libre/Open Source Software


Why use it?

Why use Open Source?(from a user’s perspective)

It’s all about freedom!

1 Use

2 Study

3 Modify

4 Distribute


How to use it?

How to use Open SourceNobody is telling you what to do!

Hire a professional!

You have the freedom tochoose the best one. . .

and to change your mindafterwards.


Open Source Licenses

Open Source LicensesThe ten commandments

Open source doesn’t just mean access to the source code.

1 Free Redistribution

2 Source Code

3 Derived Works

4 Integrity of The Author’s Source Code

5 No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups

6 No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor

7 Distribution of License

8 License Must Not Be Specific to a Product

9 License Must Not Restrict Other Software

10 License Must Be Technology-Neutral


Open Source Licenses

Open Source LicensesTwo big families

GPL

four freedoms

obligation to ensurethat these four thingshold true for the nextperson you give it to

“viral”

BSD

four freedoms

gives you the right todecide what rights tobundle with thesoftware

“freeer”


Similarities with commercial licenses

What’s the same?A lot!

Respect for ownership

It’s all about granting andretaining rights

Governed by the same laws!

Sometimes they just don’tfit


Differences with commercial licenses

What’s the same?A lot!

Different goal: copyleft

Developers invented it

No acceptance procedures


Europe

Open Source in EuropeIt’s all over the place!

Big governments try“The European Commission is placing open standards and open-source software at thecentre of its efforts to promote interoperable e-government services with a new workingpaper introduced this month.” — ZDNet

Small governments do“Nearly half of European local government bodies are using open source software whilenearly a third don’t know that they are using open source at all.” — The Register


Belgium

Open Source in BelgiumFrom the federal government to a huge conference

Open Standards for the futureFrom September 2008 onwards, all document exchanges within the services of the BelgianGovernment will have to be in an open, standard format. Only ODF is accepted as such astandard.

FOSDEM

“5000+ geeks, 200+ lectures, 2 days, 0 e”

Profoss“Profoss wants to give a good idea of the whole ICT market and let you comparetraditional solutions to open source solutions. We take a pragmatic look at the market,and you get the information you need!”


Schoten

Open Source in SchotenJan Verlinden is the man!

Didn’t go unnoticed“Schoten adopted open source software within its server IT environment and replacednumerous proprietary applications. According to the municipality, the migration was a bigsuccess. Due to the new server environment, Schoten could not only reduce related ITexpenses but also increase productivity and operation ability.” — OSOR

An example for governments around the world.“Wie smaalt over het kwakkelende opensource-project van de Duitse stad Munchen kanvoor een klinkend tegenvoorbeeld dichter bij huis terecht, in Schoten met name” — ZeaPartners

And we’re not the only ones proud of it.


Contact meWhy not?

Bart Van Loon

[email protected](+32) 472/94.14.34

blog: http://bbbart.eu/blogtwitter: @b b b a r t

mailto:[email protected]

http://bbbart.eu/blog

http://twitter.com/b_b_a_r_t

General introduction to Open Source

Technology

Transcript of General introduction to Open Source