The Future of Open Source

Open Source software has come a long way in the industry. It has been sixteen years since Linus Torvalds released the first Unix client. Since then, Open Source software has taken off in almost every segment of the industry. Operating systems, office packages, web servers and databases have become commodities. This has created opportunities for cost savings and service offerings that are unprecedented in the industry.

There are two main branches of the open source philosophy. The Free Software movement is more of a social movement than a technical or economic philosophy. Free Software is typified by the GPL community, with the most noted GPL project being Linux itself, with the Apache web server another popular Free Software project. Under the Free Software philosophy code should never be able to be sequestered by a commercial entity for its own purposes, the creative commons of programmers and their code must be respected and protected. Anything done with Open Source code must remain Open Source.

The Open Source movement is arguably more pragmatic business friendly. The classic Open Source projects would be the Berkeley Unix distributions (OpenBSD, FreeBSD) and the BSD License. The BSD license allows for the use of covered code without a requirement to share your improvements and changes with the community. This is why Apple used BSD as the basis for OS X rather than Linux and why Microsoft is still shipping BSD applications as part of Windows (such as their command-line ftp client): it's good, tested code that can be used with no obligations.

The implications of the licenses apply to those who use and modify the source code. Entities merely using open source software do not have to worry about being required to open up their business plan to the public just because it was prepared in a GPL'd word processor. However, the lower costs and ease of license administration make open source an attractive proposition for businesses.

As the development and deployment of open source technologies continue we will see increasing utility from these tools. Linux distributions are already usable enough to replace Windows on the desktop for office workers and home users. Open source office packages such as OpenOffice are starting to see widespread use due to its utility more than its cost. This is going to increase the value of Open Source products in the business environment, and will result in more large deployments of Open Source. The increasing success of open source on the desktop is being pushed by an increase in usability as much as financial concerns. The interface and easy of use elements of open source programs are receiving more attention by developers than ever (interface design and testing is expensive and time consuming, making it a traditional strength of commercial software).

A major area of development will be in the area of embedded Linux. Linux has already been used for a number of devices, notably the TiVo and a number of network appliances. The recent release of Google's mobile phone platform, the gPhone under the Apache license, there will soon be dozens more open-source based products on the market. This move will only spur adoption of open source technology in other areas. When the first network-capable toaster is produced, it will almost certainly run Linux.

The main challenge open source faces is legal. Microsoft has been making threatening nosies about patent violations for years, and has recently stepped up the FUD barrage, but has yet to identify any specific violations. Another legal issue that open source is involved in is software license compliance. Licensing requirements for commercial software have become increasingly stringent over the years. Managing licenses is becoming increasingly burdensome for businesses, with the prospect of an arduous audit backed up by US Marshals with search warrants is a real prospect for any business. The use of open source software will avoid this. All Red Hat wants to know is how many support seats you are using, the Business Software Alliance might shut you down to count MS Office installations and compare Windows licenses to what is actually installed on machines.

The most interesting development in open source is in the area of document standards. Government bodies have begun requiring the use of open standards for all their documents. It is becoming a matter of principle that access to government records must not require paying a specific vendor for the tools to read and create the documents public records are stored in. Anyone who has ever had to import old documents created with obsolete software will understand the other problems with using proprietary formats for important data, software will eventually not run on new systems and backwards compatibility in software is often problematic. This has resulted in a push to define open file formats, multiple standards bodies are working on this issue under pressure from the proprietary software world.

The widespread adoption of an open format for documents will benefit us all. And to think it all started because Richard Stallman couldn't fix a bug in a printer driver because the vendor wouldn't give him the code. :)

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