| 10 years of open source and counting |
Feb. 12, 2008
I find it hard to believe that it was 10 years ago that Eric Raymond and Bruce Perens deliberately coined the phrase "open source." To me, it seemed like only yesterday that Eric and I, who've known each other for—cough—30 years—cough—had talked about the need for a term for "free software" that didn't carry all its baggage.
At the time, "free software" had—and still does have, for that matter—two problems. The first is that, no matter how often you tell people that it's free—as in "free speech," not free as in "free beer"—many people still don't get it. That's why even now people can ask, in all sincerity, how you can make money from FOSS (free and open-source software).
The other problem is that "free software," as defined by Richard M. Stallman, aka RMS, who codified FOSS with the GPL (Gnu General Public License), carried a lot of other baggage with it besides opening up software code. Without going into the decade-long arguments between open-source and free-software advocates, the emphasis in open source is on the pragmatic use of open-source software, while free software puts the idealism of open code ahead of what some see as practical considerations.
For those of you who haven't been following the discussion—or perhaps I should say have been spared the sometimes heated debate—here's an example. In the summer of 2007, RMS said he wouldn't use the popular software version control system Subversion to maintain the code for the Emacs editor on the Emacs developer list. "We did not switch to Subversion because the people who develop Subversion are not sympathetic to the ideas of the free software movement. That is a sufficient reason, given that CVS works fine," he said.
Subversion is an open-source program under an Apache/BSD style license. RMS' comment that Subversion's developers weren't pure enough went over as well as pulling the tail of a pit bull. Karl Fogel, one of Subversion's founders, replied on the list: "We don't make our developers sign certificates of pure-heartedness before we accept their code contributions."
Brian Fitzpatrick, a Subversion developer, commented on the matter in his blog: "As a Subversion developer and an advocate of both open source and free software, reading this kind of crap from Richard makes my blood boil. More importantly perhaps, it makes me want to remove the words 'free software' from my vocabulary."
I've heard similar comments to Fitzpatrick's remarks more times than I can count. It was this "our way or the highway" attitude of some free software developers that inspired Raymond and Perens to strike out on their own more-accepting-of-diversity path. The results have been remarkable.
While there's nothing new per se in sharing code, the practice easily out-dates both the free-software and open-source labels. By giving the practice an intellectual framework, Raymond and Perens made it possible for businesses and users, rather than just programmers, to come to grips with its concepts.
I would argue that this alone is at least as responsible for open source becoming an essential part of today's software world as the work of any open-source developer. Indeed, it has extended it beyond just software to any field of intellectual endeavor. For example, the Creative Commons has freed writers, scientists, artists, and educators to open up their work for the use of others.
And, the open-source movement keeps going. It's gone unnoticed in the technology world, but Carl Malamud's Public.Resource.Org has just released 1.8 million pages of U.S. case law under a Creative Commons license.
In the press release, David Boies, the attorney who leads the successful monopoly case against Bill Gates and Microsoft, said, "Practical access for all Americans to legal cases and material is essential to the rule of law. The Legal Commons is an important step in reducing the barriers to effective representation of average citizens and public interest advocates."
Boies is right. In the past, if you wanted to access case law in the United States, your only practical choice was to use proprietary-indexed, fee-based services such as Lexis-Nexis, Westlaw and VerusLaw. Now, thanks to the open-source movement, the law, which Malamud calls "America's operating system," is being opened up.
In an eWEEK interview with Peter Galli, Perens said, "We could never have forecast how big we would become during Decade Zero, but we've built tremendous strength, to the point that we can consider much larger tasks."
I would go even farther. Even now, looking back at what open source has done not just for software but for all intellectual property, I think we're still just scratching the surface of how the open-source concept is going to change the world.
—Steven J. Vaughan Nichols
Do you have comments on this story?
Talkback here
NOTE: Please post your comments regarding our articles using the above link. Be sure to use this article's title as the "Subject" in your posts. Before you create a new thread, please check to see if a discussion thread is already running on the article you plan to comment on. Thanks!
(Click here for further information)
|
|
|
7 Advantages of D2D Backup
For decades, tape has been the backup medium of choice. But, now, disk-to-disk (D2D) backup is gaining in favor. Learn why you should make the move in this whitepaper.
4 Legal Reasons to Control Internet Access
The Internet is obviously a valuable resource for many organizations. However, many are exposed to legal liability concerns because they fail to control Internet access. Learn if you're safe in this white paper.
Rapidly Resolve J2EE Application Problems
Whether you are in the process of building J2EE applications or have J2EE applications already running in production, you must ensure that they deliver the expected ROI. Learn how in this white paper.
Load Testing 2.0 for Web 2.0
There are many unknowns in stress testing Web 2.0 applications. Find out how to test the performance of Web 2.0 in this white paper.
Build Better Games Online
For the game infrastructure providers, life is complex. Making money from games has become more complicated. Why? Find out in this white paper.
Building a Virtual Infrastructure from Servers to Storage
This white paper discusses the virtual storage solutions that reduce cost, increase storage utilization, and address the challenges of backing up and restoring Server environments.
Gaining Faster Wireless Connections with WiMAX
Welcome to what is quickly becoming the hyperconnected world where anything that would benefit from being connected to the network will be connected. Learn more in this white paper.
Is Your Desktop a Security Threat?
The new wave of sophisticated crimeware not only targets specific companies, but also targets desktops and laptops as backdoor entryways into those business’ operations and resources. Learn how to stay safe in this white paper.
Increasing SAN Reliability by 100 Percent
Storage area networks (SAN) are a strong part of storage plans. Learn how to increase your reliability and uptime by 100 percent in this case study.
|
|
|
|
|
news feed