a social history of free and open source software
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A Social History of Open Source Software
Pacific Northwest College of Art
Leslie Hawthorn, Outreach ManagerOctober 11, 2011
Introduction
Outreach Manager for OSU Open Source Lab
What is the OSL?http://osuosl.org
Tripartite mission: hosting major open source projects, providing training to student employees, outreach to help other organizations use the open source way
Previously Google Inc responsible for their Summer of Code program, Google Code In (then GHOP) & launched dev blog
What is Open Source?
Software that can be freely downloaded, used, modified and redistributed.
Generally:Licensed under an OSI-approved license
Who uses open source regularly?
Those that didn't raise hands: Who uses Facebook? Google? Shops on Amazon?
A little bit of history on the OSI why they exist, approval of licenses
Before There Was Open Source.....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicolasrolland/3063011729/
Explain who Richard Stallman is
Recap the printer story:
http://oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/ch01.html
The Four Freedoms
Freedom 0: The freedom to run the program for any purpose.
Freedom 1: The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish.
Freedom 2: The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor.
Freedom 3: The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements (and modified versions in general) to the public, so that the whole community benefits.
The Four Freedoms
The Four Freedoms
Explain each of the four freedoms
Explain in detail what each one means in real terms
Discuss ways each freedom relates back to Richard's experience with the printer at MIT
The Four Freedoms
The GNU General Public License is a free, copyleft license for software and other kinds of works.The licenses for most software and other practical works are designed to take away your freedom to share and change the works .When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for them if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs, and that you know you can do these things.
The Four Freedoms
From the Preamble to the GPL
There is a great deal of 'practical' information in the GPL and all software licenses provided as is, warranty free, etc.
Software licenses are manifestations of personal value systems
Consider this is equally true in the case of corporate personhood
The Four Freedoms
Businesses were hesitant to use free software
Fear of stagnating innovation
Enter Open Source
The Four Freedoms
Free as in Freedom - For Business?
Fears of mixing in GPL licensed code and giving up rights to corporate created works
Different ideologies made for difficult conversations think back to Sproul and the NDA
Seen to hamper innovation due to lack of adoption
The Four Freedoms
Open Source Initiative founded in 1998
Non-copyleft licenses are approved by OSIMIT X11, BSD, etc.
Response to moralizing and confrontational attitude
The Four Freedoms
New Licenses Emerge
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gisleh/3306564460/
Selling people on the same values as those that guided Netscape
Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, 'blesse' the term
April 8, 1998 the community elders voted to begin promoting the term open source and adopt rhetoric of pragmatism & market-friendliness
For quote, see http://opensource.org/history
The Four Freedoms
The Four Freedoms
The License Wars
Many, many years of arguing and consternation
License incompatibility is a big source of issue; more than 100 approved OSI licenses at this time
See book cover image obtained from Amazon for this work
Not particularly interesting but remember, this is a religious view for some people
Licenses are an expression of people's value systems in addition to being legal documents
The Four Freedoms
The Four Freedoms
Apache License
License is not viral like several before it
Clause regarding patent litigation is key
Considered incompatible with GPL by Free Software FoundationBut not by the Apache Software Foundation
Discuss patent clause in Apache license and how it helps to preclude patent litigation
Apache has had a great deal of outside contribution despite not requiring it mention mainline branch maintenance vs. internal branches
Consider again the notion of corporate personhood in context of software licensing:
Google prefers ApacheEclipse project sponsored out of IBM and created their own license to go with the code base
The Four Freedoms
The Four Freedoms
The Business Cases
Linux is the biggest example of GPL'ed code as a business successRedHat on track to $1B in revenue this year
Apache Incubator has more than 100 projects
Both ways have created excellent business successes
Independent developers still largely value the GPL, with more than 50% of newly licensed projects on SourceForge and other hosting sites being GPL (this information is dated to around 2005, though, be warned)
The Four Freedoms
The Four Freedoms
Why Does Any of This Matter?
FOSS is good for businessAvoiding vendor lock-in
Influencing public opinion on 'how' things should be done
Recruiting tool to find new employees
Reduce training times and employment costs by using common building blocks
Thank You!
Leslie Hawthorn, Outreach Manager
http://osuosl.org
@lhawthorn
This presentation is licensed for your (re)use: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Images
The OSU photo is copyright Greg Keene and is used with his permission.
The photos of Richard Stallman are made available by Flickr users under a Creative Commons License.
The OSI keyhole logo and the ASF feather logo are trademarks of the Open Source Initiative and the Apache Software Foundation. Use in this presentation is considered fair use according to each organization's logo guidelines.
The St. Laurent book cover was taken as a screenshot from the product description on Amazon.com, 10 October 2011.
Resources
Producing Open Source Software: http://bit.ly/producingoss
This guide for starting a FOSS project provides a good overview for newbies, too.
Guide to GSoC Mentoring: http://bit.ly/gsocmentoring
Documentation for Google Summer of Code Mentors that will also be of general use to folks looking to add new contributors.
Student Guide to GsoC: http://bit.ly/gsocstudents
Docs for GsoC students that will also be of general use for learning how to contribute to FOSS projects
Resources (cont'd.)
Mentoring in Open Source Communities: What Works, What Doesn't http://bit.ly/mentoringarticle
Excellent article interviewing several FOSS developers on their mentoring methodologies.
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way http://bit.ly/smartqs
The often cited guide to asking questions effectively in the FOSS world. Not always gentle in tone your mileage may vary.
Even More Resources
The Free Software Definition http://bit.ly/freesoftwaredef
The document for understanding the concept of software being free as in uncensored speech rather than no cost
The Cathedral and the Bazaarhttp://bit.ly/cathedralbazaar
Seminal piece on the early history and fundamental concepts of the Free Software movement
The Last Resources Page
The Open Source Definition http://bit.ly/osdef
Document used by the Open Source Initiative to determine whether or not a particular license can be considered Open Source. Useful for understanding the differences between Free Software and Open Source.
Please suggest additional resources!