Free Essay

Open Source

In:

Submitted By rajeesh3303
Words 1780
Pages 8
Open Source: Salvation or Suicide?

OPEN SOURCE DEFINITION:
Open source doesn't just mean access to the source code. The distribution terms of open-source software must comply with the following criteria:
1. Free Redistribution
The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.
2. Source Code
The program must include source code, and must allow distribution in source code as well as compiled form. Where some form of a product is not distributed with source code, there must be a well-publicized means of obtaining the source code for no more than a reasonable reproduction cost preferably, downloading via the Internet without charge. The source code must be the preferred form in which a programmer would modify the program. Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed. Intermediate forms such as the output of a preprocessor or translator are not allowed.
3. Derived Works
The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.
4. Integrity of The Author's Source Code
The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the license allows the distribution of "patch files" with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license must explicitly permit distribution of software built from modified source code. The license may require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original software.
5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.
6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.
7. Distribution of License
The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.
8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product
The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program's being part of a particular software distribution. If the program is extracted from that distribution and used or distributed within the terms of the program's license, all parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original software distribution.
9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software
The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the licensed software. For example, the license must not insist that all other programs distributed on the same medium must be open-source software.
10. License Must Be Technology-Neutral
No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style of interface
HISTORY:
1980 – Usenet
With the arrival of Usenet, developers could collaborate on a worldwide level like never before and made it easy to share software
1983 – Richard Stallman starts the GNU Project
The GNU Project has resulted in a huge amount of open source software over time and gave birth to the GNU General Public License (GPL).Stallman followed up the GNU Project with the creation of the Free Software Foundation in 1985 to further support the free software community

1991 – Linus Torvalds creates Linux
Linux began in 1991 with the commencement of a personal project by a Finnish student, Linus Torvalds, to create a new free operating system kernel which acts as a basis of almost all of the main stream open source operating systems
1993 – The founding of Red Hat
Red Hat, Inc. is an American multinational software company that is engaged in providing open-source software products to the enterprise community
1994 – Development started on MySQL
Michael Widenius and David Axmark started developing MySQL in 1994 and released the first version in 1995 Over the years, MySQL has become the open source database solution of choice and is used by a huge number of companies and websites like Facebook and Wikipedia. As of 2009, there were more than 11 million MySQL installations
1996-Apache HTTP web server most popular web server software
1998 - Netscape open sourced its web browser and forms an open source community called Mozilla
2004 – Canonical released Ubuntu which became the most popular linux distribution till date..

OPEN SOURCE- SALVATION OR SUICIDE?
The case is about KMS corporation having to deal with the dilemma of whether to make the source code open source or not. This case gives an insight of what the traditional model of controlling resources to get competitive advantage lacks. For a corporation with albeit highly competent programmers it gets increasingly difficult with time to come up with dazzling upgrades. When a concept becomes bigger than the company everyone wants to be a part of the concept and there are a lot of people who can contribute to it.

How a company defines success, by the sheer amount of market size a company commands or by who the customers are or how revenue is generated. Making a decision about this is of prime importance as it can do well with whatever choice it makes as long as it understands the choices, it’s ramifications and where it wishes to reach. Apple aims to define what a great phone is and Nokia wants to be the biggest phone company which is reflected in their sales volume.

A company which feels threatened by open source can chose a middle way i.e to open the platform to a third party and add features promoting community building; Offer developmental kit and license software to firms. This allows company to manage public perception about it as it is seen as a ‘big corporate power with proprietary IP’ in the backdrop of a placard ‘fight the power’ by open source evangelists. Also it allows strategic life cycle management by judicious spacing of big upgrades.

Making the source code open source has it’s inherent advantages enabling the use of a larger talent pool which allows for faster development thus improving user satisfaction and it reduces the cost of developing software. These inherent advantages would only be realised if there is an interest from developers, without interest there wouldn’t be a critical improvements. If a company is not clear of this it can adopt a hybrid strategy i.e keep core software as proprietary but create add on modules that are open source.That way the company could see whether developers would come up with improvements faster than the company did.

Adopting open source would make development of software much easier but it would make the company more liable for ip infringement lawsuits as the parts of open source code may have the probability of being copied from someone’s proprietary code. Autozone faced the possibility of being sued by SCO group for copyright infringement involving linux. The suit alleged that the Linux version in use at the auto-parts retailer contained software copyrighted by SCO. Apart from liability, the company would suffer in allowing other companies to use it’s proprietary asset.
COMPANIES USING OPEN SOURCE APPLICATION | ORGANISATION | DESCRIPTION | Berkeley DB | Oracle Corporation | Berkeley DB (BDB) is a software library that provides a high-performance embedded database for key/value data. As of 2012, Berkeley DB is the most widely used database toolkit in the world | Java Enterprise System | Oracle Corporation | | Lotus Symphony | IBM | office suite | NetBeans | Oracle Corporation | an integrated development environment (IDE) for developing primarily with Java, but also with other languages, in particular PHP, C/C++, and HTML5. It is also an application platform framework for Java desktop applications and others | MySQL enterprise | Oracle Corporation | relational database management system (RDBMS) that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases | Oracle Solaris | Oracle Corporation | ooperating system | Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) | VMware Inc. | email server and web client | Wordpress | Wordpress Foundation | Content management system | Magento | Magento Inc. | e-commerce platform |

more.. Amazon, Google, IBM, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Wikipedia, McDonalds, London Stock Exchange, New York Stock Exchange, Audi, BMW, Peugeot, Virgin America, Dreamworks

Advantages of open source users:

Lower Costs: open source software usually does not require a licensing fee and its lower cost helps small business
Easy to Manage: Can install open source software in as many locations as you want, with no need to count, track or monitor it for license compliance
Continuous, Real-time Improvement: Everyone can access the code, anyone can take the initiative to fix bugs and make it better- without having to wait for the next release
Company Independence: If the company that created the software fails, the code can still exist and evolve via its user community

Disadvantages
Not Entirely Free: Open source software can involve unanticipated implementation administration and support costs
Orphan software: some open source projects grind to a halt and die because key programmers fight and quit, or they lose interest and move on to a new project
On Your Own: Unlike with a commercial product no one in the open source community is obligated to help you answer any of your questions

Company Can Make Money with Open Source

Red Hat is the global leader in open source software solutions — and has a clear strategy in how to generate revenue. They package the popular open source operating system Linux as Red Hat Enterprise Linux and deliver it to enterprises with a promise of 10 years of support.
Red Hat CEO Said in an interview that” The functionality is a very small part of what companies are buying when they buy software, We make the power of the open source development model consumable for the enterprise in the way they're used to consuming software. We have engineering teams that track every single change — a bug fix, security enhancement, or whatever — made to Linux, and ensure our customers' mission-critical systems remain up-to-date and stable."

Paid support is one of the most common sources of revenue. For the customized version they need to pay for the service. Other professional services include quality assurance and training.
For many businesses, the decision to go open source is a way to remove all barriers to adoption. If business needs mass adoption to succeed, then open source can be an effective way to get your product into more peoples' hands. Just be sure you've got corresponding, valuable services or complementary products at the ready to monetize.

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Open Source

...What Is Open Source? Technically, “open source” means software that issupplied with the original code in which it was written allowing others to view, modify, adapt, and improve this code. This can include software that cannot be redistributed without explicit permission (and often a payment) to the software owner. Most people now define “open source” more narrowly to as software with the following further characteristics: • It is protected by copyright, but not patents. • It has a “copy-left” license (GNU license or similar), which states that it can be redistributed for no charge, but the source code and modifications must be licensed out under the same terms that it was licensed in. Sample licenses are available at http://www.opensource.org. Please note, that it is acceptable to sell commercial software in a bundle with this “open source” software. Open source software is not the same as “shareware” or “freeware” which often does not come with source code and has zero cost as its defining characteristic. Open source software, may or may not be zero cost. The benefit of open source software is that when people are allowed to read, distribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software evolves and gets better. Open Source in Brief In practice, a typical open-source project uses a web or other internet site as the repository for the source code, documentation, discussions, design documents, bug and issue lists, and other artifacts associated...

Words: 2667 - Pages: 11

Free Essay

Open Source

...Is Your IT-Operational Cost giving you sleepless nights? 1 Switch to Open Source and invest smartly in your business after all it’s your money. ANKIT SAWHNEY DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AMITY BUSINESS SCHOOL AMITY UNIVERSITY June, 2010 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ACKNOWLEDGEMENT After 10 weeks of hard work I am proud to finalize this work. Working with this project has given me valuable insights about the upcoming IT-trends. Hopefully this knowledge will be useful in upcoming carrier. It has also enhanced my skills regarding academic & scientific writing. I hope my project will be useful for further research & & that it might be useful as reading material for other students and others interested in this area. Completing a task is not usually a one man effort and it often requires the effort, help and guidance from others. I sincerely thank my faculty Ms. Teena Bagga for providing me the opportunity to complete this project and handed me an experience and exposure which will help me endeavors of professional career. Without her help and guidance, completion of this project wouldn’t have been possible. I would take this opportunity to extend my humble and grateful thanks to all those people who have directly and indirectly helped me to complete this project. ABSTRACT ABSTRACT There is no doubt that without computers to flourish...

Words: 1969 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Free and Open-Source Software

...and Open-Source Software NT1430 – Linux Networking Research Paper: Free and Open-Source Software As the name so aptly implies FOSS is software that is both free and open source.  It is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, copy, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code. This practice is becoming increasingly widespread and gaining acceptance because of the potential benefits that could arise from its use. The “free” part of the title refers not to price, but more so to the idea of freedom for the user. The user of this type of software has the ability to copy and to reuse the software which usually is not the case. The open source part of the acronym refers to the use of the peer to peer model of development. In the 1950’s to 1970’s, advanced user privelages in reference to software were the norm. Most software allowed the user to share and copy at this time, since most of the companies who dealt in the field were more focused on marketing the hardware the software was almost always complimentary. This however, began to change when software development costs began to escalate and companies began competing for the software market. Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel began to shift things back in 1991. His software was a freely modifiable source code. Over the years the idea gathered much more momentum. It has burgheoned so that now major IT companies are now developing projects with open source applications...

Words: 343 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Open Source Licensing

...What is Open Source? Open Source is a philosophy regarding software copyright under which one software developer is granted permission to use another developer’s code without having to individually ask permission. It may also refer to the genre of software that encompasses that philosophy and utilizes open source licensing. Why is Open Source good? There may be several reasons why a developer may favor the Open Source philosophy. Primarily, Open Source fosters creativity. Software products can often require an overwhelming amount of code for one individual or even a few individuals to write, especially if all that code needs to be original so that it does not infringe on another person’s copyright. This may not be a problem for large companies with armies of engineers. But this can be an insurmountable hurdle for individuals or smaller groups. Open source licensing enables developers not only by providing sets of code that can be appropriated towards their final vision, but it also enables others to actively contribute to or improve upon another developer’s product. A great metaphor for the effect of Open Source is Wikipedia.org. Wikipedia’s content is licensed under a Creative Commons license, which achieves the same goals as open source software licenses. Much like encyclopedia volumes, which are collections of articles that contribute to the whole set, software products may be seen as a collection of coded functions. Traditionally, each article of an encyclopedia...

Words: 1239 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Open Source Software

...Open Source Software Intro While knowledge is the public good, there is discussion whether or not all knowledge should free for public. Today society chose suffer the loss of knowledge for certain years. They use intellectual property law to encourage individuals to invest in research and development and creating knowledge they can profit. We want to analyze an alternative way in distributing knowledge specifically open source software and how useful it is to both creators and society. Definition and characteristics Open source licenses promise to everyone what many in the community refer to as software freedom. The terminology of Freedom is emotionally satisfying, but it has proven to be very confusing. Not that software freedom isn’t definable. The Free Software Foundation lists four essential kinds of software freedom: 1. The freedom to run the software for any purpose 2. The freedom to study how the software works and to adapt it to your needs 3. The freedom to redistribute copies of the software 4. The freedom to improve the software and distribute your improvements to the public Confusion about the term Freedom was the very reason the term open source was created. The newer term refers to an important concept well understood by anyone who has ever written computer software: Programmers write source code to direct computers to perform specific tasks, while the computer itself takes care of the routine task of translating the source code into an...

Words: 3534 - Pages: 15

Premium Essay

Open and Closed Source

...Open and Closed Source Systems Students Name POS/355 Date Instructors Name Open and Closed Source Systems Open and closed sources is a term that not many people know the difference. According to Damicon (2003-2009), “True-open-source development requires that a community of software engineers band together to work on the software.” What the company is stating is the more minds are used to develop the software the better it will be. Now a closed source is a little different. “Closed-source programs are owned by someone (or some organization) and distributed through a variety of retail channels including the owner's website Damicon (2003-2009).” Basically a closed source is the complete opposite of an open source. Now that the two are clearly defined to a better understanding users will be able to tell the difference. Open sources are gathering of many users and putting the knowledge and experiences that they have obtained over the years and used to make software. Like the saying goes, “Two heads are better than one (Two heads better than one 2014).” Typically open sources are free of charge and can easily be download. For example most people have at least either downloaded one of these browsers; Goggle Chrome, Firefox, Java, or BitTorrent. There are many more open source systems, but these that were just mention can be installed in MAC OS, Microsoft Windows, and LINUX. The positive about having open source is that it is able to be customized to the users liking and can...

Words: 770 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Open Close Source

...Closed and Open Source There are a lot of things that go into a practical and an efficient operating system; one of which consist of a closed and an open source. To understand the sources of an operating system, it is best to find out and figure out what closed and open source is. Closed and Open source can be a disadvantage or an advantage of software development and cost sharing. The initial step is to recognize what it means to have a closed or open system, and what components are needed and will make up the requirement for software or an application to function. With both closed and open sources functioning differently as to how the system is programmed and structured and how the system will function within a software application or program. OPEN SOURCE Operating systems of an open source can be defined as free software developed by corporations or individuals to develop an alternate to not having to rely on any individual or one company to modify or change the software and maximize its used for the individuals or companies' advantages. Open source are typically free to use by each individual or companies to modify and changed without having to worry about the licensing and compliance to the original developer of the software being used. These are the advantages to an open source system. * Unlimited Community Support: With the public support, the alteration and transformation of the system is more frequently, more elaborating on time to develop a greater...

Words: 714 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Open Closed Source

...Open/Closed Source Heidi Mitchum POS 355 May 6, 2013 Michele Gamberutti Open/Closed Source The background behind an operating system stems into different branches of a tree. There are many items that go into a functional operating system. One of which includes open and closed source. To understand what may be a source for an operating system is the first step to understand what an open or closed source is. Even though at times it can be a wasteful effort, open/closed sources can be an advantage of cost sharing and software development. First it is a good idea to find out what it means to have a open or closed source system, meaning components that make up the functions needed for an application or software. With both open and closed working very differently as to how the system is developed and how they run within a software program or application. Each of these sources will be discussed. Open source systems are typical used for everyone to see and for anyone to use, and this is why the name is open. There are advantages to having an open source system which include: • Larger Development Support – Giving a large support system the developers feel as though they can make changed when and where every needed (Vidal, 2013). • Customizable – Having full control of the system gives developers a sense of control to make changes to the programs for advancement in all areas (Vidal, 2013). • Security – Having two eyes is better than one, having more security...

Words: 996 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Open Source vs Closed Source

...vs Open Source versus Closed Source Open Source versus Closed Source There are basically two types of operating systems when it comes to how the code is handled. These are open source operating systems and closed source operating systems. One isn’t necessarily better than the other, but they both have situations and areas that they work best in. Open source isn’t for everyone, and neither is closed source. It’s always better to have both sides available so there is some variety. Open source and closed source operating systems have are completely different, almost like night and day. Closed source operating systems like Microsoft Windows, for example, are developed by an individual or a company. The final product is available to run on a system, however all the source code, the recipe for the operating system, is kept secret and no one except the developers have access to it. The closed source operating system is exactly the opposite, because the source code is made readily available to the user, and if they have programming knowledge, they can debug it and tweak it into their own style. Basically they can personalize it to fit what suits them and their needs. Closed source operating systems, such as Windows can definitely meet the needs in a market. Because people pay for closed source operating systems, they can be guaranteed to get documentation and support for the software. One bad thing about closed source software is that developers often rush it...

Words: 668 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Open-Source Movement and the Future

...OPEN-SOURCE MOVEMENT AND THE FUTURE ITSU1003 INTRODUCTION TO OPEN-SOURCE Generally computer software sources (the human readable version of the software) are of two kinds; closed and open. Open-source programming has been prominently growing in the past ten years. In this model, programmers share their codes freely in order to be modified and used by others. They are allowed to alter and change the original software as much as they like. This in turn will produce higher quality software with improved features. For the open-source programs to be reliable, some sort of licenses has been approved by Open Source Initiative (OSI) which is a “non-profit corporation dedicated to managing and promoting the open-source definition for the good of the community, especially through the OSI Certified Open-source software certification mark and program.” HISTORY OF OPEN-SOURCE Open-source began to form in the hacker’s society of the United States computer science laboratories such as Stanford and MIT in the late 1960’s. Programmers were members of societies in which each member was expected to share his or her code among the society members. This would apply improvements on different codes by members of the society. In addition, programmers were able to use each other’s knowledge in their own interest mutually. By the early 1980’s the university hacker societies began to collapse, and the hackers were hired by commercial companies producing proprietary systems (systems that required...

Words: 1851 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Closed-Source vs. Open-Source Databases

...to choose: closed-source or open-source. Each option has its advantages and disadvantages, and mainly depends on the organization itself; where one will benefit, the other will face some difficulties. For example, open-source software is usually is more flexible, but it sometimes requires some extra work or knowledge from the user to customize the database. The main reason why I would prefer using open-source database, is that in closed-database systems it is not possible to see the source code. It means that the user cannot detect bugs and other system vulnerabilities. The crucial factor in favor of the open-based system is the question of the price, as open-source database systems are free. Open-source database systems, such as MySQL, are great for users, who agree to tolerate some minor limitation (which sometimes do not matter for a particular company) in preference to simple and fast performance. Many organizations remain cautious about using new open-source software. For these companies, they might use systematic software implementation; for instance, start using open-source databases like PostgreSQL or MySQL, after they have successfully tested Linux or Open Office (Amant & Still, p. 259). Moving in that direction will lead to a formation of a strategy, which I would suggest using - the hybrid strategy. In order to use any benefits of open-source database systems and to lower the risk, this strategy suits perfectly. With the help of the open source concept, it emphasizes...

Words: 345 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Open Source Bi Tools

...applications make new information administration challenge. Organizations have understood the significance of implementing accomplishments of the objectives characterized by their business methods through BI ideas. It depicts the experiences on the part and necessity of constant BI by analyzing the business needs. BI has two essential various implications identified with the utilization of the term Intelligence. The important, less frequently is the human intelligence applied in business issues/activities. Business intelligence is a new field of the analysis of the application of human cognitive to the administration and choice in different business issues. The paper gives the idea of BI, types of BI, open source software, review on some popular open source tools of BI, and Benefits. Open Source Business Intelligence Tools Business intelligence is a technology driven procedure for analyzing information and displaying significant data to help corporate administrators, business chiefs and other clients to make more informed business decisions. The process of taking substantial measures of data, examining that data, displaying a high level set of reports that gather the essence of that data into the premise of business activities, and empowering administrations to settle on major day by day business choices. BI as way and system for enhancing business performance by giving capable assists for executives to empower them to have actionable data at hand. BI tools are seen as technology...

Words: 2171 - Pages: 9

Free Essay

Open and Closed Source Software

...Open Versus Close Source Software Tristan San Juan 03/17/2015 POS/355 Brian Davis Open versus Closed Source software? Which is better? There are many questions behind which software is better. There are literary many pros and cons on both of the soft wares. It comes down to the users’ limitation and preferable on which one is to use. Some people have both and use them for different reasons. As you read on we going to clarify some features on each kind of software to further explain the difference between the two kinds of software. Closed source Software, most users are going to be familiar with this. Windows, Adobe (Photoshop), Norton Anti-Virus and Mac OS are very fine example of what closed software are. In definition a closed software or aka a proprietary software is, “any software that is copyrighted and bears limits against use, distribution and modification that are imposed by its publisher, vendor or developer. Proprietary software remains the property of its owner/creator and is used by end-users/organizations under predefined conditions ("Proprietary Software", 2015).” Meaning it is what it is you cannot edit it in source code level, I mean you can hack it but most likely as users who doesn’t know anything about coding will most likely break it. One of the biggest sign when people see closed source software is it cost money, yes it does and you pay for what you get. Some of the benefits of having a closed source software is that is one its reliable quality...

Words: 942 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Open Closed Source Os

...Open Source and Closed Source Operating Systems POS/355 Jim W November 3, 2013 History repeats once again and proves that the saying, (two heads are better than one) continues to be true! The movement for the collaboration of the thinkers, inventors, and creators; to come together and share ideas and concepts that advance the development of mature and immature open source code is here to stay. The original hackers from the 1950’s (computer enthusiasts’) at MIT’s Tech Railroad Club left their programs in drawers for others to work on. This concept of sharing and developing source code for a wide range of functionality continues to enable programmers and students to use source code as a learning tool that sparks worldwide innovation! Open Source operating systems are usually free OS’s that can be manipulated via the source code format rather than the compiled binary code format, which is only available by closed source code. There are quite a few different open source code providers with the three most popular being GNU/Linux, BSD UNIX, and Solaris. Not only did the GNU/Linux open source operating system serve the standard OS features and function, it also produced many UNIX-compatible tools, including utilities, compilers and editors, but never released a kernel. The advantage of collaboration of the open source OS, Linus Torvalds, a student from Finland released a rudimentary UNIX-like kernel using the GNU compilers and tools and invented contributions worldwide. This...

Words: 716 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Open Source Software

...OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE What are reasons for business to use open source software? With the current economy difficulties, companies are trying to find areas in their businesses where they can save money. Many companies are having no choice but to let people go. Some businesses try to avoid lay-offs and instead are looking in other areas to save money. One of the areas is, of course, the IT department; software application acquisition is an area that might lead to a big money savings. Even in financially difficulties times, businesses want or need to improve their application environment. Sometimes it might even be necessary to invest in the IT infrastructure for long-term savings, which may result in the company not needing to close their doors. But many business owners or CEO’s will question if open source software is ready for business. This research paper intends to answer this question. The best reason to use open source software in a business environment is cost savings. This gives the business freedom to use software and change the source code in other words, modify how the software application is used, as it is needed. Open source removes the need for dependence on single vendor solutions and it provides very high quality applications and very good support. To understand open source software it is important to know what open source is, and what the meaning of open source software is. This research paper will also show where open source came from; the history of open...

Words: 2520 - Pages: 11