WEEK 2.2: Open Source & Free Source Software

Open Source Software

OSS

Open Source Software/Free Software

OSS/FS

Free & Open Source Software

FOSS

Free/Libre/Open Source Software

FLOSS

Not Unix Project (a recursive acronym)

GNU

Richard Stallman

GNU (Not Unix Project) is a project started by who, which turned into the Free Software Foundation to develop and promote alternatives to proprietary Unix implementations.

Free Software Foundation

GNU (Not Unix Project) is a project started by Richard Stallman, which turned into the what to develop and promote alternatives to proprietary Unix implementations.

GNU/LINUX

• The complete operating system includes the ___ kernel, the GNU components, and many other programs

• ___ is the more accurate term because it makes a distinction between the kernel-Linux and much of the software that was developed by the GNU Project in association with the FSF

Free Source Software

• Seen in terms of liberty than price

  • Free Speech

• Described in terms of users’ freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change, and improve the software

• Examples:

  • GNU Operating System

  • LibreOffice The Document Foundation

  • Linux

Freedom 0: To run the program for any purpose

Freedom 1: To study how the program works & change it

Freedom 2: To redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor

Freedom 3: To distribute copies of your modified versions to Others

4 Kinds of Freedom of OSS/FS-The Theory

Freedom 0

4 Kinds of Freedom of OSS/FS-The Theory

• To run the program for any purpose

To run the program for any purpose

Freedom 0

Freedom 1

4 Kinds of Freedom of OSS/FS-The Theory

• To study how the program works & change it

To study how the program works & change it

Freedom 1

Freedom 2

4 Kinds of Freedom of OSS/FS-The Theory

• To redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor

To redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor

Freedom 2

Freedom 3

4 Kinds of Freedom of OSS/FS-The Theory

• To distribute copies of your modified versions to others

To distribute copies of your modified versions to others

Freedom 3

Commercial Software

• Software developed by business or individuals with the aim of making money from its licensing and use

• Most of its kind are proprietary but there is also commercial free software and non-commercial free software

Proprietary Software

• The company holds the exclusive copyright

• Restricts other individual’s access to the software’s source code and/or the right to copy, modify, and study the software

Open Source Software

• Promote software reliability and quality by supporting independent peer review and rapid evolution of source code as well as making the source code of software freely available

• Open source licenses allow anyone to modify and redistribute the software

Open source licenses

____ ___ ____ allow anyone to modify and redistribute the software.

Open Source Initiative (OSI)

• Has created a certified mark

• In order to be certified, th software must be distributed under a license that guarantes the right to read, redistribute, modify, and use the software freely

1. Free Redistribution

2. Source Code

3. Derived Works

4. Integrity of the Author’s Source Code

5. No Discrimination Against Persons/Groups

6. No Discrimination Against Field of Endeavor

7. Distribution of License

8. License must not be Specific to a Product

9. License must not Restrict other Software

10. License must be Technology-Neutral

The Distribution Terms of Open Source Software must comply with the following criteria:

Free Redistribution

Part of Distribution Terms of Open Source Software criteria

• The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distri- bution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.

• Rationale: By constraining the license to require ______, we eliminate the temptation to throw away many long-term gains in order to make a few short-term sales dollars. If we did not do this, there would be lots of pressure for cooperators to defect.

Source Code

Part of Distribution Terms of Open Source Software criteria

• 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.

• Rationale: We require access to unobfuscated source code because you cannot evolve programs without modifying them. Since our purpose is to make evolution easy, we require that modification be made easy.

Derived Works

Part of Distribution Terms of Open Source Software criteria

• 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.

• Rationale: The mere ability to read source is not enough to support independent peer review and rapid evolutionary selection. For rapid evolution to happen, people need to be able to experiment with and redistribute modifications.

Integrity of the Author’s Source Code

Part of Distribution Terms of Open Source Software criteria

• 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.

• Rationale: Encouraging lots of improvement is a good thing, but users have a right to know who is responsible for the software they are using. Authors and maintainers have reciprocal right to know what they are being asked to support and protect their reputations.

• Accordingly, an open source license must guarantee that source be readily available, but may require that it be distributed as pristine base sources plus patches. In this way, “unofficial” changes can be made available but readily distinguished from the base source.

No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups

Part of Distribution Terms of Open Source Software criteria

• Rationale: In order to get the maximum benefit from the process, the maximum diversity of persons and groups should be equally eligible to contribute to open sources. Therefore, we forbid any open source license from locking anybody out of the process.

• Some countries, including the United States, have export restrictions for certain types of software. An OSD-conformant license may warn licensees of applicable restrictions and remind them that they are obliged to obey the law; however, it may not incorporate such restrictions itself.

No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor

Part of Distribution Terms of Open Source Software criteria

• 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.

• Rationale: The major intention of this clause is to prohibit license traps that prevent open source from being used commercially. We want commercial users to join our community, not feel excluded from it.

Distribution of License

Part of Distribution Terms of Open Source Software criteria

• 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.

• Rationale: This clause is intended to forbid closing up software by indirect means such as requiring a nondisclosure agreement.

License Must Not Be Specific to a Product

Part of Distribution Terms of Open Source Software criteria

• 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.

• Rationale: This clause forecloses yet another class of license traps.

License Must Not Restrict Other Software

Part of Distribution Terms of Open Source Software criteria

• 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.

• Rationale: Distributors of open source software have the right to make their own choices about their own software.

License Must Be Technology-Neutral

Part of Distribution Terms of Open Source Software criteria

• No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style of interface.

• Rationale: This provision is aimed specifically at licenses which require an explicit gesture of assent in order to establish a contract between licensor and licensee. Provisions mandating so-called “click-wrap” may conflict with important methods of software distribution such as FTP download, CD-ROM anthologies, and Web mirroring; such provisions may also hinder code reuse. Conformant licenses must allow for the possibility that (a) redistribution of the software will take place over non-Web channels that do not support click-wrapping of the download, and that (b) the covered code (or reused portions of covered code) may run in a non-GUI environment that cannot support pop-up dialogs.

Source code is made available to the users by the programmer

Commonality of Free Source & Open Source Softwares

Their restrictions placed on redistributed source code

Difference of Free Source & Open Source Softwares

Noted :))

According to the “The Cathedral & The Bazaar”, OSS/FS is “developed and disseminated in an open Forum”, it “revolutionizes the way in which software has been historically been developed and distributed”.