News about Open Source projects, licenses and luminaries in the Open Source movement

 Open Source: An Open Question for Red Hat and Others, Aug 21, 2008

It's been tough lately for companies like Red Hat and Novell that bet their business on open source. Here's a look at the haves and the have-nots

While there is never any shortage of hope in the world of technology, perhaps the largest gusher in the last 20 years came from two words: open source, a term that is too large for one column (too big for most books, in fact).

Sir Thomas More's description of Utopia as a place where "nobody owns anything, but everyone is rich" is not a bad way to describe the open source movement in which people around the world collaborate with each other to produce services that anyone can use - or improve on - for nothing.

A new O'Reilly Radar report dubbed "Open Source in the Enterprise" points out the exponential growth that has been shown in the popularity of open source over the past few years. Many companies are starting to use open source software such as OpenOffice as a replacement for costly alternatives like Microsoft's Office 2007, and Linux is starting to shift to the general market more and more, becoming less and less of a "geek thing".

... closed source code is used everyday within the Linux world. And here’s the funny thing: most of us never really think twice about it.

There are hundreds of software implementations completed every day, but since it’s a sunny day in London, here’s one to warm the cockles of the rest of the open source fraternity…

Some former scouts, now open-source advocates, see value in project, despite some concerns

Some people get sniffy about OpenOffice.org, calling it mickey mouse in comparison to the “serious” and “grown-up” Microsoft Office. That may have been a vaguely plausible jibe for version 1, but I've found version 2 to be incredibly fast and powerful – it really does everything I need in an office suite, and it does it well. And yet OpenOffice.org rarely gets the respect it deserves.

In a press release issued late last month analyst heavyweight Gartner made a series of technology predictions for the coming years. Things such as software as a service and Apple gaining significant ground by 2011 may not be completely unexpected.

In the beginning...

One of the most significant moments in the history of the modern software industry took place in 1998 when Netscape announced plans to release the source code of its browser under a license that would freely permit modification and redistribution. That pivotal event represents the point at which software freedom extended its reach beyond the enthusiast community and began its ascent into the mainstream.

So you’ve got an idea for a great app and you’re thinking of making your own open source project? Here are some items to consider and some sites that will help you on your journey. We’ll also see how some well-known open source teams did it.

So much has changed so quickly that a model of Open Source school computing is emerging which could save the UK taxpayer billions of pounds and provide enormous opportunities for the home-grown technology sector based around Open Source software.

When using open-source software, businesses usually choose between a free, community-supported version of an application or a fee-based enterprise version that includes support, service, updates and other features.

One person's trash is another's treasure, and this weekend open source vendors and community members plan to join forces with a Northern Californian recycling organization to transform hundreds of desktop and laptops into PCs loaded with Ubuntu, Firefox, OpenOffice and more to be donated to needy area schools.

The Open Solutions Alliance, a consortium working on interoperability of open-source software, has set up a European chapter due to the high number of community-developed software projects that have sprung up in the region.

Linux, Apache and other open-source applications have long been used to power Web and file servers. But when it comes to managing the data center, many companies have held back. Now, though, some users have turned into big believers that open source works here, too.

The other day in my Open for Business blog, I bemoaned the beginning of the new year simply because it brings with it a plethora of pundits predicting what the new year will hold. Particularly irksome (to the cynic in me, I guess) are posts that declare the new year as “the year” for a particular technology.

Over the last several years open source has grown in stature and maturity, becoming more worthy in the eyes of corporate buyers and investors. Everyone could point to Red Hat, which dominates the Linux operating system space, as the poster child for open source but few other “pure” open source companies rose up to that level.

After the filing of the Verizon / BusyBox suit, and after reading about any number of other, similar incidents where a company showed what could only be seen as flagrant disregard for the GPL, I had to ask myself: Why do people do this? Are companies really that naive about the GPL, or do they just think they can get away with anything?

Lead artist from Elephants Dream speaks about what it is like to make your own open movie using open source tools and the power of the community.

Ever since the dawn of commercial software, piracy has been a problem without a realistic solution that meets the needs of both the software vendor and the end user. From serial keys to outright DRM (digital rights management) schemes, the software industry has left no preventive measure untried.

Declaring that Internet search is currently broken, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales is trying to fix it. And he wants your help.

Although there is evidence of counterproductive groupthink in the open-source community, that doesn't really invalidate the viability of the community-driven development model.

Enterprise customers are using open-source software more and more, but issues of interoperability are still a stumbling block to widespread adoption, say customers and open-source software vendors.

Five days ago, three members of the free and open source software community finally heaved a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from their brows after winning a battle they had waged for years.

2007 is a year that will long be remembered in the open source and Linux communities. It was a year in which the twin underpinnings of what makes open source successful and what could serve to destroy it made the headlines.

Thomas Howe is a telecommunications developer and consultant who is passionate about the role of open source software in the telephony industry. He calls open source the "next generation" of telecommunications, and works with large enterprise companies to help them design phone systems that fully integrate with their business flow. "Only open source can do that," Howe says.

Beta users can access the OpenOffice.org suite using a Web browser on Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X--no download necessary.

More and more open-source developers these days are employees of companies, paid to work on open-source projects, rather than independent programmers doing it for fun. The change raises issues for projects, programmers and employers alike.

The giant software companies are increasingly boasting of their open source credentials but developers need to guard against encroachment on their principles.

The Open Solutions Alliance says more open-source projects need to be built with good interoperability hooks.

Do you really like OpenOffice.org as your office suite? Would you like to be able to use it on any computer with an Internet connection? If you answered yes to both those questions, you'll be interested in Ulteo's beta of Ulteo Online Desktop, which allows the use of OpenOffice.org over the Internet as SAAS (software as a service).

I'm not sure who Gartner talks to when it puts together its famous "Hype Cycle" reports, but I'm finding it hard to believe that it talks with enterprises.

DataDyne punts EpiSurveyor as a free, open source tool that can be used to make hand-held data entry forms, collect data on a mobile device and then transfer the data back to a desktop or laptop for analysis.

Eric Raymond made the point years ago that most software is written for use, not for sale. Eric put the number at 95%; that is, 95% of all software is written for in-house use, rather than for sale.

Who knew that Apple's latest version of Mac OS X was knitted together from enough open-source software to give Linux a run for its money?

A six-person startup is readying a modular, open source hardware/software system resembling a set of electronic Legos. Bug Labs claims device developers can build "anything" using "Bug," which comprises an ARM11-powered base and various modular add-ons.

Notch it up as a victory for open source over enterprise software. Zenoss, a provider of open source IT management software, has beaten off competition from four leading commercial software providers to land a deal at global technology firm UTStarcom.

I think Miguel de Icaza is an exceptional developer. He's also a fantastically effective community leader. And, though he's never displayed his best side to me, personally, I understand that he's a quality person that people like to be around.

Some surprising moves, such as the much-maligned mission statement, can help corporate open source projects work, said Ben Collins-Sussman and Brian Fitzpatrick at the Google Speaker Series.

Saugatuck Technology has noted that at most 20% of software sold in 2010 will be open source. Proprietary software rules! Right?

The New York Times likes open source -- so much so that, as it gradually moves more of its print operations online, it is nurturing a Web development team that has released two of its own open source projects.

Open-source tools are finding their way into the stack, but few support mission-critical functions.

The community's pushing a breakneck pace to add new kernel features, while struggling to keep up with bug fixes. Slowing down doesn't look like much of an option.

Mark Shuttleworth knows how to build communities and he knows how to make money. It turns out the two go hand in hand.

iFAX, a commercial company that is built on open source fax server software HylaFAX, was recently included in Inc. Magazine's 2007 list of the top 500 fastest growing companies in the United States.

As part of my interview with Dean Drako of Barracuda Networks, he mentioned to me some survey work Barracuda has done. Barracuda talked to 228 enterprise customers and asked what advantages open source has over proprietary software, and vice versa.

Turns out open source and Microsoft have more in common than thought: both have it wrong, one prominent software developer claimed at MIT’s Emerging Technologies conference.

Continued acceptance will drive down prices and force proprietary software vendors to change their business model.

At least 80 percent of all commercial software products will include elements of open-source code by 2010, according to Mark Driver, vice president of research at Gartner.

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