Open Source - The Open Source Phenomenon

Forget hardware, the big bucks are in software. Or are they? The open source movement represents a powerful group of dedicated individuals who are changing the software landscape. We will take a look at this emerging phenomenon.

What is Open Source?

Firstly open source relates to software. Open source software is not freeware because the former may not necessarily be free and the latter has copyright restrictions. The producers of open source software take the view that the best way to produce quality software is to let it be virally (in the marketing rather than the biological sense) distributed to people in a form that allows them to improve the original software.

Commercial developers of software protect the readable version of their code (known as source code) as that constitutes the intellectual material that gives them their competitive advantage. They supply their software in a binary format. More commonly known as executable code.

Thus open source developers are in effect allowing others to have their 'crown jewels' in the hope that this will lead to better 'crown jewels'. This can be hard to come to terms with if your world revolves around market share and profit. However the smart corporates see that this 'random' decoupled approach to software evolution produces robust software and is thus worth exploiting.

The initiative has been driven by the Open Source Initiative and the Free Software Foundation. Between them a number of 'rules' have emerged:

• Software must be distributed to anybody that wants it without restriction
• The source code must be made available so that the receiving party can modify and improve it
• Improvements must be notified to the initiator of the software so that upgrades can be produced and made available
• The concept of copyleft (as opposed to copyright) has emerged, which embraces the above.
• Most significantly, perhaps, open source software does not have to be free. The distributor is entitled to cover their costs and even make a profit.

Sounds a bit hippyish. What are the main products?

So far so esoteric you may be thinking. So let's look at some of the products that are underpinned by the open source doctrine.

• Unix - Many parts of this very robust family of operating systems were built using the open source approach. In fact BSD Unix and the Unix like GNU operating system are both completely open source. As is Linux, the new 'talk of the town' web platform favourite.
• Apache - Beyond the world of Indians and helicopters, Apache is the most popular Web server software product. In fact IBM use it as the foundation for its WebSphere product. Apache is an example of an open source product dominating its market.
• Perl - The main development language for 'live content' Web pages.
• Mozilla - The nickname given to Netscape's web browser was made open source to enable hackers to improve its security features. A key issue as it competed for dominance against Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
• Bind - This is the software which manages the domain name service for the Internet
• Sendmail - The most important email transport software on the Internet.

The last two are very significant. They are essentially 'killer apps'. Their existence is enough to discourage commercial software developers from even trying to compete. Such is the power of open source software.

Who are the players?

Okay. So there are some decent products out there. Who is pushing them?

There are many, but here are a few names:

• IBM - As mentioned IBM has adopted Apache as the core of its WebSphere web server management suite.
• Apple - Has made a big commitment to open source. This includes:
• The kernel of its MacOS operating system
• Apache support
• QuickTime Streaming Server - Apples's video management suite
• OpenPlay - Apple's network gaming toolkit
• Red Hat / Caldera - These two companies offer versions of Linux and associated support services.
• Netscape - Netscape Navigator Browser
• Corel - Linux distribution.

NB. Companies such as Oracle and Sap have made a commitment to port their products to the Linux platform.

Again this reinforces the fact that the corporates have woken up to the commercial opportunities offered by the open source movement.

Pros and cons

This viral approach to developing software appears to work. There are people out there who genuinely want to make the world a better place by trying to raise the software development game. Linux attests to that.

The big problem is what happens when your people have adopted open source products and mutated them beyond recognition (because with access to the source code they can). This becomes particularly significant when they leave the company. You are left with an unmaintainable heap of spaghetti (or perhaps ravioli if an object oriented approach was taken!).

Open source is generally free or at least very cheap. So whose butt do you kick when the product doesn't work? Tricky. But companies like Red Hat and Caldera are happy to have their butts kicked for money. So at least with Linux you can have peace of mind.

Where is it all going?

The keys drivers for the open source appear to be:

• To eliminate mediocre 'rush to market' software development
• To use software as a weapon to drive competitors out of the market
• To exploit the open source foot soldiers to produce quality software which can form the basis of profitable products.

In summary

The open source movement has evolved from the hobbyist's bedroom to the corporate arena. Even though the corporates appear to be exploiting the phenomenon, control still lies with the individuals who devote their free time to the open source movement. Microsoft has long argued that the US Government should not intervene in the free(!) market as the natural dynamics lend themselves to self correction whenever anyone gets too dominant. This argument gets more compelling by the day.