understanding foss - free & open source software

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Understanding FOSS Free & Open Source Software

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This presentation is targeted at absolute amateurs who have never even heard of the term Open Source before. It educates them about what is Open Source Software, what are the various licenses that govern them, real like organisations who have taken up FOSS and also the various business models used to earn money out of Open Source software.

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Page 1: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

Understanding FOSSUnderstanding FOSSFree & Open Source SoftwareFree & Open Source Software

Page 2: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

What is FOSS?

Page 3: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

Free Software

Free - as in ‘freedom’, not ‘free beer’

Freedom to run the program, for any purpose

Freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs. Access to the source code is a pre-condition for this purpose

Freedom to re-distribute copies so you can help your neighbor

Freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits

Page 4: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

Three pillars of foss

Open Source Software

GCC, Linux Kernel

Python, Java, PHP

Drupal, Wordpress

Firefox, VLC

Open Standards

WWW

PCI

HTML & XHTML

Ogg & Theora

ODF

Open Content

Wikipedia

Page 5: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

Father of Free Software Foundation

Richard Matthew Stallmanpopularly known as RMS

He launched the GNU project in 1983.

That marked the initiation of the Free Software movement.

Page 6: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

Popular FOSS

Online Encyclopedia Wikipedia

Network Protocol Analyzer WireShark

IM Client Pidgin

Text Editor Notepad Plus

Media Player VLC, mPlayer

IDE Netbeans, Eclipse

P2P Client BitTorrent

Mobile OS Android

Web browser Firefox

Word Processing LibreOffice, Open Office

Vector Drawing Tool Draw

Photoshop Alternative GIMP

Programming Languages Python, Ruby, PHP

PlatformsJBoss, TomCat, Jetty,

RoR, Django

Full blown compilers GCC

Project Management Redmine

Content ManagementWordpress, Drupal, MediaWiki, TWiki

Page 7: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

Advantages of FOSS

No use restrictions

Free to modify or change the software without paying fees or getting explicit permission

Can be customized to meet job specification as exactly as possible

Stability and security issues can be addressed and resolved in a direct manner by the user or all users using a community approach

Very often free and open-source software if also free of cost, leaving maximum financial leverage to be put into the tailoring of the entire hard- and software solution

Low rate or complete absence of malware

Respect for the user's privacy

Page 8: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

Famous FOSS Implementations

Page 9: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

Business Model of FOSSBusiness Model of FOSS

Page 10: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

Dual Licensing

Applications

for free distribution & free use

for proprietary use

Copyright and control of the core product development is held in one hand, the original developer

Works best when you’re a market leader

Clients adopt when they like FOSS and intend to use it for commercial use

Page 11: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

Dual Licensing

Real Life Case: MySQL Product SQL Database

Free License GPL

Users Approx. 4 mill (2003)

Customers Around 0.5% users

Main IncomeLicense (>50%),

services

Development In-house

Marketing Direct

Technology Standardized (SQL)

“Our software is 100% GPL, and if yours too is 100% GPL (or OSI

compliant), then you never have to pay us for the licenses. In all other instances, you are better served by our commercial license.” (MySQL,

2003)

Page 12: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

Distribution & Service Model

Sell support/customization and other professional services

Training

Consulting

Custom Development

Post Sales Support

Strategy requires a large base of clients that want to use the product

Controlled by value driven pricing and competition

Page 13: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

Distribution & Service Model

Provide the product on CD instead of an online download

One survey of 113,794 Linux users indicated that 37% of respondents preferred to obtain Linux on a CD/DVD

Providing support services to enterprise customers - Enterprises are willing to pay for accountability

Real Life Case: Red Hat Linux

Page 14: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

Distribution & Service Model

Support for installation, answering technical questions, and training employees to use the product

Upgrade Services - Enterprises can now enter into long term agreements with distributors to ensure that they get the latest upgrade

Provide on-site assistance

Real Life Case: Red Hat Linux

Page 15: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

The Ecosystem Strategy

Company creates a network of partners or preferred independent software vendors (ISVs)

Software franchising

brand licensing

support sellers

Red Hat and Oracle are their major partners

Page 16: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

Dual Product Model

Penetrate the market by releasing an open source product and sell a different product.

For example: Eclipse and its paid proprietary plugins

Page 17: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

Web Based Advertising Model

Software generate revenue through advertisements.

For e.g. Firefox has a Google search bar built into the web browser.

Mozilla Foundation raked in a whopping $257 million in revenues in 2012 and 80% of it is from Google.

Page 18: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

Hybrid Model

Change the availability of the source code

Right to view (i.e., to see the code in the first place and possess a copy of it)

Right to use (i.e., to compile the source into an executable form and run the resulting application)

Right to modify (i.e., to make changes to the source code)

Right to redistribute (i.e., to give the source code to the third party, potentially in either modified or unmodified form)

Page 19: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

Hybrid Model

Change the treatment of different users

License with different terms for Commercial & Non-commercial users

Change the treatment of different types of uses

Source license could allow personal use or internal use within an organization at low cost, or no cost

Prohibit or require higher license fees for use of the software to provide a service to other users

Page 20: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

Software LicensesSoftware LicensesWhy is it important to understand the licenses?

Page 21: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

CopyLeft is a general method for making a program (or other work) free, and requiring all modified and extended versions of the program to be free as well

Copyleft says that anyone who redistributes the software, with or without changes, must pass along the freedom to further copy and change it. Copyleft guarantees that every user has freedom.

The code and the freedoms become legally inseparable

UNDERSTANDING COPYLEFT

Page 22: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

UNDERSTANDING COPYLEFT

Proprietary software developers use copyright to take away the users' freedom; we use copyright to guarantee their freedom. That's why we reverse the name, changing “copyright” into

“copyleft.”

Page 23: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

Strong & Weak Copyleft

-- Not all derived works inherit the copyleft license

-- Generally used for the creation of software libraries.

-- Free software licenses that use "weak" copyleft include the GNU Lesser General Public License and the Mozilla Public License.

The most well known free software license that uses strong copyleft is the GNU General Public License.

Page 24: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

Copyright V/s Copyleft

Copyrights exist in order to protect authors of documentation or software from unauthorized copying or selling of their work. A copyright infers that only with the author's permission may such activities take place.

A Copyleft, on the other hand, provides a method for software or documentation to be modified, and distributed back to the community, provided it remains Libre.

Page 25: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

How is FOSS Good for Business?

Security

Quality

Customizability

Freedom

Flexibility

Cost

Try before you buy

Page 26: Understanding FOSS - Free & Open Source Software

Thank You!Thank You!