Concluding Remarks

Concluding Remarks

For a country like India,where on the one hand many are turning to PCs for first timie , and on thee other hand many programmmers are rakinng lot of foreign exchanges, the decision to go either way can be difficult. Since most programmers are working on the proprietary software, the decision to go with OSS will impact their long term prospects.Delaying the acceptance of OSS by continuing to rely on proprietary software, pirated or otherwise, will negaticely impact our ability to remain independent of the whims of vendor.

The OSS movement view software as a mundane item like a car: in real life users can freely share formation about the cars , its engine specs,etc.In much the same vein, the role of the software is relegated as an accessory a  to the hardware. User pay for the hardware and get the required software fir free. Any additional tweaking or troubleshooting should be carried out by the user, or by an expert who is paid by the user.

The Future

The Future

Proprietary Software

According to Stallman, fixing a software should not be seen as different from fixing a water tap.Ordinary people should be able to do it with little effort.The OSS movement has ensured that the users will be more aware of the pitfalls of using proprietary software, whereat free or not. With OSS, ordinary people can collaborate and share software with other without feeling guilty or binge labeled a pirate or being paranoid about being penalized. Using OSS will ensure that the general awareness among users will increase, since they will be able to identify and debug code without waiting to be spoon-fed by a vendor.

GNU/LINUX

The GNU project is continuing to working o the HURD kernel to complete the GNU OS.But whether it will gain the wide acceptance that GNU/Linux has is anybody's guess. Nevertheless, given the inherent advantages of an OSS, compatibility and price will not be issues.

The PersonalDesktop Arena

Unlike commercial usage, where stability s more important than a slick GUI, the non-commercial PC requires greater user-friendliness and a greater variety of entertainment software like games.OSS games are presently few and far between. Many OSS programs have been made available for proprietary OSes.The first step to accepting OSS is to switch to these application.


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History

History

Richard Stallman

Richard Matthew Stallman (born March 16, 1953), often shortened to rms, is an American software freedom activist and computer programmer. In September 1983, he launched the GNU Project to create a free Unix-like operating system, and he has been the project's lead architect and organizer. With the launch of the GNU Project, he initiated the free software movement; in October 1985 he founded the Free Software Foundation.

Stallman pioneered the concept of copyleft, and he is the main author of several copyleft licenses including the GNU General Public License, the most widely used free software license. Since the mid-1990s, Stallman has spent most of his time advocating for free software, as well as campaigning against software patents, digital rights management, and what he sees as excessive extension of copyright laws. Stallman has also developed a number of pieces of widely used software, including the original Emacs,[6] the GNU Compiler Collection, the GNU Debugger, and various tools in the GNU coreutils. He co-founded the League for Programming Freedom in 1989.

Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, a copyleft-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software. The FSF is incorporated in Massachusetts, USA.

From its founding until the mid-1990s, FSF's funds were mostly used to employ software developers to write free software for the GNU Project. Since the mid-1990s, the FSF's employees and volunteers have mostly worked on legal and structural issues for the free software movement and the free software community.

Consistent with its goals, only free software is used on FSF's computers.

GNU

The plan for the GNU operating system was publicly announced on September 27, 1983, on the net.unix-wizards and net.usoft newsgroups by Richard Stallman.[8] Software development began on January 5, 1984, when Stallman quit his job at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Artificial Intelligence Laboratory so that they could not claim ownership or interfere with distributing GNU as free software. Richard Stallman chose the name by using various plays on words, including the song The Gnu.[9]

The goal was to bring a wholly free software operating system into existence. Stallman wanted computer users to be "free", as most were in the 1960s and 1970s – free to study the source code of the software they use, free to share the software with other people, free to modify the behaviour of the software, and free to publish their modified versions of the software. This philosophy was later published as the GNU Manifesto in March 1985.

Richard Stallman's experience with the Incompatible Timesharing System (ITS), an early operating system written in assembly language that became obsolete due to discontinuation of PDP-10, the computer architecture for which ITS was written, led to a decision that a portable system was necessary.[10] It was thus decided that GNU would be mostly compatible with Unix. At the time, Unix was already a popular proprietary operating system. The design of Unix had proven[according to whom?] to be solid,[citation needed] and it was modular, so it could be reimplemented piece by piece.

Much of the needed software had to be written from scratch, but existing compatible third-party free software components were also used such as the TeX typesetting system, the X Window System, and the Mach microkernel that forms the basis of the GNU Mach core of GNU Hurd (the official kernel of GNU). With the exception of the aforementioned third-party components, most of GNU has been written by volunteers of the GNU Project; some in their spare time, some paid by companies, educational institutions, and other non-profit organizations. In October 1985, Stallman set up the Free Software Foundation (FSF). In the late 1980s and 1990s, the FSF hired software developers to write the software needed for GNU.

As GNU gained prominence, interested businesses began contributing to development or selling GNU software and technical support. The most prominent and successful of these was Cygnus Solutions, now part of Red Hat.

GPL

The GPL is the first copyleft license for general use, which means that derived works can only be distributed under the same license terms. Under this philosophy, the GPL grants the recipients of a computer program the rights of the free software definition and uses copyleft to ensure the freedoms are preserved, even when the work is changed or added to. This is in distinction to permissive free software licenses, of which the BSD licenses are the standard examples.

The text of the GPL is not itself under the GPL. The license's copyright disallows modification of the license. Copying and distributing the license is allowed since the GPL requires recipients get "a copy of this License along with the Program".[6] According to the GPL FAQ, anyone can make a new license using a modified version of the GPL as long as he or she uses a different name for the license, does not mention "GNU", and removes the preamble, though the preamble can be used in a modified license if permission to use it is obtained from the Free Software Foundation (FSF).

Linus Torvalds

Linus Benedict Torvalds (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈliːn.ɵs ˈtuːɹ.vald̥s] ( listen); born December 28, 1969 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnishsoftware engineer and hacker, best known for having initiated the development of the Linux kernel. He later became the chief architect of the Linux kernel, and now acts as the project's coordinator. He also created the revision control system Git.












LINUX

Linux (commonly[where?] play /ˈlɪnəks/ lin-əks, also pronounced /ˈlɪnʊks/ lin-uuks) is a computer operating system which is based on free and open source software. Although many different varieties of Linux exist, all are Unix-like and based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds.

Linux can be installed on a wide variety of computer hardware, ranging from mobile phones, tablet computers, routers and video game consoles, to desktop computers, mainframes and supercomputers.Linux is a leading server operating system, and runs the 10 fastest supercomputers in the world.
The development of Linux is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed, both commercially and non-commercially, by anyone under licenses such as the GNU General Public License. Typically Linux is packaged in a format known as a Linux distribution for desktop and server use. Some popular mainstream Linux distributions include Debian (and its derivatives such as Ubuntu), Fedora and openSUSE. Linux distributions include the Linux kernel, supporting utilities and libraries and usually a large amount of application software to fulfill the distribution's intended use.

A distribution oriented toward desktop use may include the X Window System, the GNOME and KDE Plasma desktop environments. Other distributions may include a less resource intensive desktop such as LXDE or Xfce for use on older or less-powerful computers. A distribution intended to run as a server may omit any graphical environment from the standard install and instead include other software such as the Apache HTTP Server and a SSH server like OpenSSH. Because Linux is freely redistributable, it is possible for anyone to create a distribution for any intended use. Commonly used applications with desktop Linux systems include the Mozilla Firefox web browser, the OpenOffice.org or LibreOffice office application suites, and the GIMP image editor.

The name "Linux" comes from the Linux kernel, originally written in 1991 by Linus Torvalds. The main supporting user space system tools and libraries from the GNU Project (announced in 1983 by Richard Stallman) are the basis for the Free Software Foundation's preferred name GNU/Linux.

Open Source Movement

Open Source Movement

WHAT IS OSS?

OSS literally means software whose source is open.Stretching this definition,to be termed OSS,the software should also not restrict the user from freely using it,modifying it and distributing it.The most significant differences between OSS and Proprietary Software(PS) are immediately apparent.PS is usually distributes as a binary without source code.So it is almost impossible to dissect the program to learn about its structure and logic,and make corrections or modifications if necessary. PSS is normally sold with a lot of condition that restrict the usage and distribution of the program.

WHAT OSS ISN'T?

There is a general opinion that all OSS is also free of cost.That isn't the case. Proponents of OSS do not restrict the sale of OSS. People are free too package and sell OSS at a price they consider fit. But given in the fact that the OSS is freely available to the next person as well. It is easy to conclude that it would not be possible for an arbitrarily high price to sustain. If the price is too high, other vendor will enter the market and sell the same product cheaper.Thus market forces will ensure that only afar price is charged.

A LOOK AT THE BOTH TYPES OF SOFTWARE

1.Longevity
OSS,since it allows modification by all,can survive in its current form for long time.User need not worry about the lack of vendor support or feel compelled to upgrade. PS is supported and maintained only by the vendor,so the life of a software is linked to that to od iits vendor.Commercial organizations, while choosing a PS cannot consider the performance of the program in isolation:they also have to consider the financial foundations and long-term business visibility of the vendor. A user would be left n the lurch d the vendor were to close down in the near future.

2.Quality
Peer review,an excellent mechanism for identifying and resolving shortcomings in a product can be implemented in OSS since anyone can see code the greater the number of people scrutinizing the code,the greater the chances of bugs being discovered.In contrast,PS code is usually offered for review only to selected group, so peer review is not as rigorous.The resulting code, therefore is not as bug free as OSS.

3.Portability
while the pc is the dominant computing platform,other computing devices are becoming popular.It is easy for an OSS to be ported to other platforms, since contributors with the relevant expertise can Maker necessary modifications.A PS vendor's expertise is limited to the platform it is currently serving; porting to other platforms would be influenced by many factors such as profitability.


THE FORCES BEHIND THE OPEN SOURCE MOVEMENT

Three entities are central to this movement; Richard Stallman,Linus Torvalds, and the Open Source Initiative.Richard Stallman is the original ideologue of the movement who started off to create an entire free OS-GNU. He also founded the free Software Fundation. Linus Torvald is the programmer who created the kernel- a central part of an operating system - that completed Stallman 's GNUu. And the Open Source Initiative, Formed by Eric Raymond and Bruce Perens after having disagreed with Stallman 's Strict Interpretation of free softwares it responsible for having taken the movement to the masses, albiet by diluting the original ideology.

About Open Source

About Open Source

According to Wikipedia:

"Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software."

While the open source definition says:

"

Introduction

Open source doesn't just mean access to the source code.

The distribution terms of open-source software must comply with the following criteria:

1. Free Redistribution

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

2. Source Code

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. Intermediate forms such as the output of a preprocessor or translator are not allowed.

3. Derived Works

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.

4. Integrity of the Author's Source Code

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.

5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups

The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.

6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor.

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.

7. Distribution of License

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.

8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product

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.

9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software

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.

10. License Must Be Technology-Neutral

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

— Open Source Initiative, http://opensource.org/docs/osd"