<OpenSource>
Jan Wildeboer
Red Hat
September 8, 2008 Slide 1

20 minutes ...
History
Economics
Vision
September 8, 2008 Slide 2

The Beginning
Why I Must Write GNU
“I consider that the golden
rule requires that if I
like a program I must share
it with other people who like it.
Software sellers want to divide the users
and conquer them, make each user agree not
to share with others. I refuse to break
solidarity with other users in this way.”
The Gnu Manifesto
Richard Stallman, Founder of the Free Software Foundation,
1985
September 8, 2008 http://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.html Slide 3

Standards and
control
“The decision to make the
Web an open system was
necessary for it to be universal. You
can't propose that something be a
universal space and at the same time
keep control of it.”
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Creator of the World Wide Web,
1998
http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/FAQ.html
September 8, 2008 Slide 4

The birth of Linux
To: comp.os.minix
“Hello everybody out there using minix ­
I'm doing a (free) operating system (just
a hobby, won't be big and professional
like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones....”
Linus Torvalds, August 25, 1991
September 8, 2008 Slide 5

20 minutes ...
History
Economics
Vision
September 8, 2008 Slide 6

Interoperability -
Definition
IEEE:
... the ability of two or more
systems or components to exchange
information and to use the
information that has been
exchanged.
Source:Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. IEEE Standard Computer Dictionary: A
Compilation of IEEE Standard Computer Glossaries. New York, NY: 1990.(iftikahr)
September 8, 2008 Slide 7

... I propose a better
version ...
... the ability of two or more
systems or components to exchange
information using open standards
and to use the information that has
been exchanged.
September 8, 2008 Slide 8

The Broken Way
●
The vendor defines the level playing field
●
Direct Interoperability
●
NDA, IPR
●
1:1 deals,
no openness
●
Closed market
●
No verification
possible by
third party
September 8, 2008 Slide 9

The Better Way
●
The Standard defines the level
playing field
●
Open market
●
1:n relation
●
Implementations
can be verified
by third parties
September 8, 2008 Slide 10

The Netherlands
September 8, 2008 Slide 11

Economics
●
Open Standards do not care about
licensing
●
Proprietary and open solutions
compete on a level playing field
●
Long term Open Source will always
win
September 8, 2008 Slide 12

20 minutes ...
History
Economics
Vision
September 8, 2008 Slide 13

Joel's law
5
years
September 8, 2008 Slide 14

... remember
September 8, 2008 Slide 15

OLPC aka $100 Laptop
September 8, 2008 Slide 16

The Future?
●
People want to share
●
They will share
●
Internet will drive more change
●
The $$$ is in creating and
offering the Open Infrastructure
●
Old-School value chains will die
●
New economics != Anarchy
●
Welcome to the ProSumer Age
September 8, 2008 Slide 17

Acknowledgements
Credits to
●
Lawrence Lessig for this layout
●
The Communities for OS Solutions
●
The Patent System ;-)
●
Microsoft
/me = jan.wildeboer@redhat.com
September 8, 2008 Slide 18