Free and Open Source Software Aruna Lorensuhewa Contact Details:

Source Code of Software  Source code is any sequence of statements or declarations written in some human-readable computer programming language (Java or C)  By having the source code to a program you are usually given the power to change, fix, customize, and learn about a program  This is a power that you do not have if you are not given the source code (proprietary software).  Source code is one of the requirements that make a piece of software free. Software Package

Why Code is Important?  “Code” is the technology that makes computers run.  These machines increasingly define and control our life.  These machines run us.  Code runs these machines. So –What  Control  Understanding  Freedom  Power should we have over this code ?  These questions have been the challenge of a famous person

FREE AS IN FREEDOM

Richard Stallman  Richard Matthew Stallman (born March 16, 1953), often abbreviated "rms", is an American software freedom activist, hacker, and software developer. March Americansoftware freedom activisthackersoftware developerMarch Americansoftware freedom activisthackersoftware developer  Founding a movement for freedom in a world increasingly defined by “code.”  In September 1983, he launched the GNU Project to create a free Unix-like operating system, and has been the project's lead architect and organizer. GNU ProjectUnix-likeoperating systemGNU ProjectUnix-likeoperating system  With the launch of the GNU Project he started the Free Software Movement, and in October 1985 set up the Free Software Foundation (FSF). Free Software MovementFree Software FoundationFree Software MovementFree Software Foundation  Stallman pioneered the concept of copyleft and is the main author of several copyleft licenses including the GNU General Public License, the most widely used free software license. copyleftGNU General Public Licensefree software licensecopyleftGNU General Public Licensefree software license

Open Source Software/ Free Software  Briefly, Open Source Software (OSS) / Free Software (FS) program are programs whose licenses give users the freedom to  run the program for any purpose,  to study and modify the program, and  to redistribute copies of either the original or modified program.

Two Philosophies in the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)  There are two major philosophies in the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) world: –Free Software Foundation (FSF) philosophy –Open Source Initiative (OSI) philosophy.

Free Software Foundation (FSF) philosophy  According to the FSF, free software is about protecting four user freedoms (Launched in 1983) four user freedoms (Launched in 1983) Freedom 0: The freedom to run a program, for any purpose Freedom 1: The freedom to study how a program works and adapt it to a person’s needs. Access to the source code is a precondition for this Freedom 2: The freedom to redistribute copies so that you can help your neighbor and Freedom 3: The freedom to improve a program and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits. Non-free (free as in freedom, not prices) software restricts the freedom to corporate. FSF considers non-free software unethical.

Open Source Initiative (OSI) philosophy  The basic idea behind open source is very simple:  When programmer can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece for software, the software evolves.  People improve it. People adapt it, people fix bugs.  In this way software will rapidly improve.  The OSI is focused on the technical value of making powerful, reliable software, and is more business-friendly than FSF.  It is less focused on the moral issues of Free Software and more on the practical advantages of the FOSS distributed development method.

Similarities of FSF & OSI  While the fundamental philosophy of the two movements is different, both SFS and OSI share the same space and cooperate on practical grounds like software development effort against proprietary software and software patent.  Richard Stallman says, the Free Software Movement and the Open Source Movements are two political parties in the same community.

Foss Development Model

FOSS Development Model  The FOSS development model is unique and became possible only with the advent of the Internet and the communication boom caused by it.  The cathedral and bazaar analogies are used to contrast the FOSS development model with traditional software development methods.  The bazaar method development has been proven over time to have several advantages.  Reduced duplication of effort  Building upon the work of others  Better quality control  Reduced maintenance costs

Gnu PROJECT  UNIX-compatible software system developed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). UNIX  The philosophy behind GNU is to produce software that is non-proprietary. The GNU project was started in 1983 by Richard Stallman at the MIT GNU  Linux systems rely heavily on GNU software and in the past, GNU systems used the Linux kernel (GNU/Linux). Linuxkernel Linuxkernel  This close connection has led some people to mistakenly equate GNU with Linux.  They are actually quite separate. In fact, the FSF is developing a new kernel called HURD to replace the Linux kernel in GNU systems.

Linux  Linux pronounced as lee-nucks or lih-nucks. Linux is a freely-distributable open source operating system that runs on a number of hardware platforms. open sourceoperating systemplatformsopen sourceoperating systemplatforms  The Linux kernel was developed mainly by Linus Torvalds and it is based on Unix. kernel  Because it's free, and because it runs on many platforms, including PCs and Macintoshes, Linux has become an extremely popular alternative to proprietary operating systems. PCsMacintoshesproprietaryoperating systemsPCsMacintoshesproprietaryoperating systems Linus Benedict Torvalds (born inDecember 28, 1969 in Finland) is a Finnish software engineerDecember FinlandFinnishsoftware engineer

Software Freedom Day (SFD)  Software Freedom Day (SFD) is an annual worldwide celebration of free/open-source software. freeopen-source softwarefreeopen-source software  SFD is a public education effort, not only to celebrate the virtues of free/open-source software, but also to encourage its use, to the benefit of the public. celebrate  Software Freedom Day was established in 2004 and was first observed on August 28, 2004 when over 70 teams participated. August 28August 28  Since that time it has grown in popularity as more than 300 teams from over 60 countries celebrated on the second SFD, held on September 10, September 10September 10  The primary sponsor for was Canonical Ltd., the company behind Ubuntu, a Linux distribution. Canonical Ltd.UbuntuLinux distributionCanonical Ltd.UbuntuLinux distribution

Software Freedom Day (SFD)  Last year's Software Freedom Day was celebrated on the 15th of September

How large are the savings from FOSS?  There have been recent reports about the tremendous savings from FOSS, most noticeably from giant corporations that have migrated their internal systems to GNU/Linux. Intel reportedly saved US$200 million from a move to GNU/Linux from Unix  Amazon reported a savings of US$17 million14 from switching their servers to GNU/Linux.  However, licensing costs are not the only costs of a software package or infrastructure. It is also necessary to consider personnel costs, hardware requirements, opportunity costs and training costs.  Often referred to as the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), these costs give the clearest picture of the savings from using FOSS

Direct Cost Savings – An Example  Cybersource of Australia has done an analysis of FOSS savings based on a comparison between Microsoft products and FOSS-based software that provide similar functionalities. The study, “Linux vs. Windows: The Bottom Line”, looked at potential savings for three hypothetical companies (A: 50 users; B: 100 users; and C: 250 users). All numbers are in US dollars: