Free Software Movement and Open Source Communities

Free Software Movement and Open Source Communities GPA 1035 Prepared and Presented by Dr. Haggen So Released under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong Licence

Agenda
Early Hacker Culture
Richard Stallman
Linus Torvalds and Linux
Eric Raymond, the Cathedral and the Bazaar, Open Source
Diversity and Conflicts between Free Software and Open Source
Free/Open Source Software and Software Industry
Political Implications

History of Software (1)

Early Hacker Culture MIT AI Lab CTSS (Compatible Time-sharing System) vs ITS (Incompatible Time-sharing System)

Early Hacker Culture
Access to computers-and anything
which might teach you something
about the way the world works
Should be unlimited and total
Always yield to the Hands-On Imperative!

Early Hacker Culture All information should be free

Early Hacker Culture Mistrust Authority-Promote Decentralization

Early Hacker Culture Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race or position

Early Hacker Culture You can create art and beauty on a computer

Early Hacker Culture Computers can change your life for the better

Richard M. Stallman

Apple ][+ Clone

Changes in Computer Industry
Rise of Personal Computers
Widening of Market – Horizontal Market Possible
Secrecy and Profitability – Closed Source

Source Code
Computer Instructions are coded in binary format 00101...
A more human friendly method to program computer:
/* Hello World program */
#include<stdio.h>
main()
{ printf("Hello World"); }
Convert source code into binary instructions by a computer compiler

Responses of Richard Stallman
Release source code that could not be used commercially
Release source code that must remain freely available -> Software Freedom
1983 GNU project, Unix Clone
1985 Free Software Foundation, Free as in Free Speech, General Public License (GPL)

Free Software
The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

Free Software
The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements (and modified versions in general) to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

Rise and Fall
GNU project was very successful, released lots of useful software
Next step was to implement the "heart" of the operating system – kernel was missing
People problems – Forking in Emacs, GNU C Compiler and glibc

Android

Linus Torvalds and the Penguin

What book changes your life?

The Next Generation
Andrew Tanenbaum's "Operating Systems: Design and Implementation“
He bought a new 386SX PC and Minix
He, as a new comer, provided an alternative kernel, Linux, v0.01 release in 1992
Linux was built upon the GNU project and released under GPL

Eric Raymond the Cathedral and the Bazaar Open Source

A late member of the MIT AI Lab community
Wrote the essay "the Cathedral and the Bazaar", became the standard analysis for mechanism in Open Source collaboration
Eric Raymond

The Cathedral and the Bazaar, Open Source 2 forces Brooks's Law vs Egoless Programming

Linus's Law "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow."

Motivations Scratch one's itch ego-boosting for difficult tasks

Community Formation Metiocracy Forking

Open Source and Linux became 'profitable' concepts during the dot com boom
VA Linux (NASDAQ:LNUX) offered at $30, highest at $320, first day closed at $239.25
Prediction on Linux taking over the desktop market long overdue
The Open Source and Linux Hype

Diversity and Conflicts between Free Software and Open Source

The web browser company in 90s
Faced challenge from Microsoft
Based on the Cathedral and the Bazaar, Open up the source code to fight Microsoft in 1998
Firefox to reach 25% of global market share end of 2009 -> Success??
Netscape/Mozilla

Facing business model problem
Internal software quality problem
Open Source as Last Resort?
More in-depth Analysis

Drop in the price of the tools (computer), availability of source code
Linux in every set-top box and Internet router
Google powered by Linux
Example - Operating System in EEEPC
Software as Service
Commodification of Software

Who wrote 2.6.20? http://lwn.net/Articles/222773/
Microsoft and Open Source
Current Situation

Open source is an intellectual-property destroyer ... I can't imagine something that could be worse than this for the software business and the intellectual-property business. I'm an American; I believe in the American way. Allchin in 2001:

Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches Ballmer(2001) on GPL:

Openness in computer systems through Open Source
Commodification lower the IT Barrier
Politicial Implications

Use Open Source Altivore to fight FBI's surveillance program - Carnivore
e-Voting and Open Source (Diebold, Sequoia)
Openness in Computer Systems through Open Source

InMediaHK reused Coolloud's code, based on Open Source Project Drupal
Tor as an anti-GFW instrument
Commodification lowers the IT Barrier

Image Credits Ferdi (2006) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Honeywell-Bull_DPS_7_Mainframe_BWW_March_1990.jpg, released under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Licence. http://www.stallman.org/saintignucius.jpg, released under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Derivative 3.0 Licence.

Image Credits A-giâu (2005) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Taiwanese_Apple_II_clone_Cosmo.jpg, released under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Licence. laihiu (2009) http://www.flickr.com/photos/laihiu/3799300943/in/set-72157621976446710/, released under Creative Commons Attribution Attribution 2.0 Licence.

Image Credits Android Open Source project (2009) http://developer.android.com/images/system-architecture.jpg, released under Apache 2.0. Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason (2004) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Linus_Torvalds.jpeg, released under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Licence.

Image Credits Larry Ewing <lewing@isc.tamu.edu>, http://www.isc.tamu.edu/~lewing/linux/ using the GIMP. Russ Nelson (2005) File:Esr.jpg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Esr.jpg.

Associated Press. (2004). "Diebold to Settle E-Voting Suit." Wired Retrieved 10 Oct, 2009, from http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2004/11/65674. Baker, M. (2006). The Mozilla Project:Past and Future. Open Sources 2.0:The Continuing Evolution. C. DiBona, D. Cooper and M. Stone. Sebastopol, California, O'Reilly. Brooks, F. P. (1995). The mythical man-month : essays on software engineering. Reading, Mass., Addison-Wesley Pub. Co. Castro, J. (2004). "Ars Technica sits down with Scott Collins from Mozilla.org." Retrieved 26 Jun, 2004, from http://arstechnica.com/etc/linux/collins-interview-1.html. Corbet, J. (2007). "Who wrote 2.6.20?" LWN Retrieved 10 Oct, 2009, from http://lwn.net/Articles/222773/. Dotzler, A. (2009, 27 Sep 2009). "firefox breaks 24%." Mozillazine Retrieved 10 Oct, 2009, from http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/2009/09/firefox_breaks_24.html. Dugan, S. (2000). "Defanging Carnivore:A security specialist explains why his open-source version of the FBI's snooping technology is a victory for privacy fans." The Salon Retrieved 10 Oct, 2009, from http://www.salon.com/tech/view/2000/09/25/robert_graham/. Free Software Foundation. (2000). "What is Free Software?" Retrieved 21 Jun 2000, from http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/free-sw.html. References

Greene, T. C. (2001). "Ballmer: "Linux is a cancer" Contaminates all other software with Hippie GPL rubbish." The Register Retrieved 10 Oct, 2009, from http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/06/02/ballmer_linux_is_a_cancer/. Heilemann, J. (2000). "The Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing But The Truth." Wired Retrieved 10 Oct, 2009, from http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.11/microsoft.html. Japan, M. (2007). "The History of Firefox and Mozilla: The story of browsers dating back to the dawn of the Web." Retrieved 6 Oct, 2009, from http://www.foxkeh.com/downloads/history/history-foxkeh.pdf. Kelty, C. M. (2000). Scale and Convention: Programmed Languages in a Regulated America, Mass. Institute of Technology. Leonard, A. (2001). "Life, liberty and the pursuit of free software." The Salon Retrieved 10 Oct, 2009, from http://archive.salon.com/tech/log/2001/02/15/unamerican/. Levy, S. (1984). Hackers: Heroes of The Computer Revolution. Garden City, New York, Anchor Press/Doubleday. Lucas, G. (2004). "State bans electronic balloting in 4 counties:Touch-screen firm accused of 'reprehensible,' illegal conduct." San Francisco Chronicle Retrieved 10 Oct, 2009, from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/05/01/MNG036EAF91.DTL. References

Open Source Initiative. (2003). "The Open Source Definition." Retrieved 30 Jan, 2003, from http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php. Raymond, E. S. (2000). "The Cathedral and the Bazaar." Retrieved 30 May, 2000, from http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar.html. Raymond, E. S. (2000). "Homesteading the Noosphere.". Retrieved 22 Dec, 2000, from http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/homesteading/homesteading/. Torvalds, L. and D. Diamond (2001). Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary. New York, TEXERE. Weinberg, G. M. (1971). The psychology of computer programming. New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold. Williams, S. (2002). Free as in Freedom:Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software. Sebastopol, California, O'Reilly Media. Zetter, K. (2003). "Aussies Do It Right: E-Voting." Wired Retrieved 4 Nov, 2003, from http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,61045,00.html. Zetter, K. (2004). "Diebold May Face Criminal Charges." Wired Retrieved 10 Oct, 2009, from http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2004/04/63191. Zetter, K. (2009). "Voting Machine Company Agrees to Hand Over Source Code." Wired Retrieved 10 Oct, 2009, from http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/06/voting-machine-company-agrees-to-hand-over-source-code/. 小兔黑黑 . (2008). " 微軟－創意的破壞者 ." InMediaHK Retrieved 10 Oct, 2009, from http://www.inmediahk.net/node/1000762. References

Free Software Movement and Open Source Communities

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