Introduction to FOSS
- 1. Introduction to FOSS Presented By: Mohammed Gamal
- 2. Agenda What's FOSS? History Free Software vs. Open Source Software Famous FOSS projects Why use FOSS? FOSS Licences FOSS in the Industry Why people contribute to FOSS?
- 3. What is FOSS? FOSS stands for Free Open Source Software Free as in freedom, not necessarily price Free Software and Open Source software are usually the same, but the motivations are different – (will be discussed next)
- 4. History No restrictions on software till late 1970s Richard Stallman founded the Free Software Foundation and the GNU project in 1984 Linus Torvalds starts the Linux project and releases the first version in 1991, under the GPL licence. Eric Raymond publishes 'The Cathedral and the Bazaar', coins the term 'Open Source' Influenced by this, Netscape opens its browser source code, founding the Mozilla project
- 5. Free vs. Open Source Free software movement is more concerned with user's freedoms. Open Source is more about the shareability of the code. More enterprise-friendly BSD license is regarded as non-free, yet open source.
- 6. Free vs. Open Source (2) Basic freedoms in Free Software: The freedom to run the program, for any purpose The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish. Access to the source code is a precondition for this. The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbour The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements (and modified versions in general) to the public, so that the whole community benefits. Access to the source code is a precondition for this
- 7. Free vs. Open Source (3) Open Source Definition Free Redistribution Access to source code Permitting Derived Works Integrity of The Author's Source Code No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor Distribution of License License Must Not Be Specific to a Product License Must Not Restrict Other Software License Must Be Technology-Neutral
- 8. Famous FOSS projects Linux kernel Apache Web server OpenJDK BSD operating systems (not Free but Open Source) Eclipse PHP Mozilla Firefox
- 9. Why use FOSS? The availability of the source code. The right of code modification, improvement and redistribution. No black box. Have an alternative. Low cost software (TCO). Free marketing and support for your project. Quick improvement. Large base of developers and users. Decreased number of open defects. (We should report bugs)
- 10. Why use FOSS? ●For you - as a student - FOSS is an immensly benficial educational tool. ●Suggestion: A good idea is to integrate it within our educational curricula.
- 11. FOSS Licences Hundreds of licences are available for FOSS FSF-approved licenses: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html OSI-approved licneses: http://opensource.org/licenses Most licences are approved by both. We'll concentrate on GPL, LGPL, and BSD licences
- 12. GPL GPL stands for General Public License Most famous, and most commonly used Grants most freedoms for users Most demanding in terms of guaranteeing those freedoms Not very enterprise-friendly Guarantess project-viability nevertheless
- 13. LGPL LGPL stands for Lesser General Public Licence Almost the same as GPL with less restrictions Designed mainly to be a licence for libraries Allows non-free applications to link against the LGPL-licences software
- 14. BSD Licence BSD Licence was first used by BSD OSs Less restriction on derived works BSD network stack modified and closed by Microsoft in NT systems due to the relaxed restrictions Can be regarded as more enterprise-friendly Not FSF-approved but OSI-approved
- 15. Dual Licencing Some companies choose to release their software with multiple licences This way they can leverage having a diverse developer community, yet also have the perceived benefits of closed-source distribution and licencing Example Until recently, Qt – a C++ GUI library – had an open source edition released under the GPL, and a commercial edition that contains additional libraries -e.g. Libraries to access commercial DBs such as Oracle and MS SQL, which are not covered under the GPL
- 16. FOSS in The Industry Linux represents 12.7% of the overall server market share. Source: http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS5369154346.html Other estimates 60% share of the server market Source: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/151568/ballmer_still_searching Nevertheless, Linux has a great market share of Supercomputers, cloud computing providers, and embedded devices
- 17. FOSS in The Industry (2) Mozilla Firefox has celebrated a billion downloads on July 2009. Reported to have more than 20% of the market share Source: http://marketshare.hitslink.com/firefox-market-share.aspx?qprid=0&sample=28
- 18. FOSS in The Industry (3) Apache web server accounts for 47% of all webservers Source: http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2009/06/17/june_2009_web_se
- 19. Why people contribute to FOSS Most of OSS developers are paid, one way or another. Peer-recognition Personal Learning Use in personal projects Companies invest in the project to deliver it to a customer Provide training and support.
- 20. Why people contribute to FOSS You should contribute too! ;)
- 21. Questions?
- 22. Thank You! :)