Introduction To Open Source
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Transcript of Introduction To Open Source
What is open source?
Simple: you can read the code.You can see how it’s made.
Two main characteristics....first, it’s free as in beer
Second (much more important and interesting), it’s free as in freedom.
Richard M.Stallman
Richard M.Stallman is the founder of the free software movementFour basic freedoms
Four freedoms
• The freedom to run the program for any purpose
• The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs
• The freedom to redistribute copies
• The freedom to improve the program
Why is this cool?
Potential.
One of these is full of potentialOne of these is sterile
Anyone can do whatever they like with it.NEA: Nobody owns it, Everyone can use it, Anyone can improve it
Improved in terms of quality“With enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow”
Improved in terms of quantity of code (functionality)People add layers on top of other people’s code
As the code base grows, the potential growsImproves chances of it being used for something not intended by the originator
All fine in theory, what about in practiceReputation for being ugly...maybe beautiful on the inside
Lots of companies quietly making a fortuneValued at $23 billion
Firefox, Thunderbird, smaller ones such as Fennec$60m a year
Shock, horror!FreeBSD 5. Bundles over a hundred of the most popular Open Source products.Safari. Based on Webkit. Open source.
BT make money from their hardware, which uses Linux.
Open source ProprietaryCost of licence £0.00 $$$!Cost of upgrade £0.00 $$$!Cost of change £0.00 / Time $$$ / Time / Impossible
Ability to reconfigure Unlimited VariableAbility to innovate High LowAbility to extend High LowAbility to develop Varied Varied
Look and Feel Poor Poor
A cool, calm, totally unbiased comparison of the merits of both open
source and proprietary software
Why? Let’s look at benefits. NOT from agency view, but from business owners view.Ability to innovate - your business may depend on this. Software companies daren’t read feedback from customersLook and Feel - our Open Source Show And Tell event shows us they are investing in this.
Vendors ask customers what they wantFord: If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would’ve asked for faster horsesOpen source is the demand side supplying itself
Two types of licence:
Permissive
Copyleft
Permissive licences = you can do whatever you want (example: BSD)Copyleft = Opposite of copyright, rather than adding restrictions you’re removing them (example: GPL). “Join the Family”. Derived works must keep this licence. Freedoms are preserved. IF you distribute improvements, you must re-publish on these terms.
Community is as important as the codeBuilding, SupportingHiring
MotivationsCredibility in peer group, altruism, real passion for the product, fun, creativity....and maybe even money
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Evolution of open source:First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.Proprietary vendors have fought against open source (SCO case), now claiming their products work well with open source.
9 Examples (many of these are arguably best of breed, and improving all the time): Firefox - 200 million users2003: Internet Explorer had ~99% of the browser marketQ4 2008 Browser Share; Internet Explorer 68.12%, Firefox 21.34%, Safari 7.93%
Webkit - Safari and Google Chrome
Drupal - Version 7 being released early next year
Wordpress has been downloaded 4,636,629 timesWell over 4 million blogs on Wordpress.com too
Mediawiki200 languagesWikipedia: staff of 25 people, 4th - 9th most popular site in the world
80 languagesWorks with Microsoft office files50 million downloads in 5 months - but one download can be shared
Ubuntu - over 10 million userspopular on netbooks netbooks
Open BSD - at the heart of Mac OS X
Apache - runs 100 million web site servers. Most popular by far. 46% of all servers on the web.
What I believe in
Educated choice.
In the spirit of giving credit where it’s due...
Creative Commons
• mag3737 for “Open”
• Orin Optiglot for “Choices”
• ruSSeLL hiGGs for “FREEDOM IS A TOILET TISSUE”
• Tambako the Jaguar for “Beer bubbles 1”
• eecue for “RMS: Richard M.Stallman”
• scragz for “Bored”
• lombo311 for “Old School Smoker!”
• ~Dezz~ for “Father of the Eye - HDR”
• Skip The Budgie for “lego_relativity”
• BluFlowr for “Trifle”
• phoenixdailyphoto for “Boring”
• Adactio for “Hackers”
• David Laribee for “Geek Credibility Photo”
• World of Oddy for “Happy Hippie, Blue Meanie”
Thanks!
THANKS!