When is open source just throwing it all away?

Today ZDNet has yet-another story about microblogging going open source.

Andrew Mager has the story of Laconi.ca, which lets you “build your own Twitter” with support for the Open Microblogging protocol.

Laconi.ca is not alone. Social bookmarketing site Ma.gnolia is also going open source.

It has become a common sight. A market develops. A leader emerges. Then the laggards say “we’re open source.” It’s beginning to look like the throwing of a bad poker hand.

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Could governments effectively subsidize open-source development?

At the Utah Open Source Conference yesterday I presented a dilemma. Briefly, the idea is that as open-source buyers grow comfortable with open source they will stop spending money on open source. This leads to tragedy of the commons-type problems and a difficulty in encouraging the creation of more open source.

I therefore asked the question, "Who will pay for open source in the future?" I (and the audience) suggested that the problem may resolve itself over time as enterprises come to recognize that their failure to replenish open-source communities with either cash or code may come to harm the code commons from which they derive increasing amounts of value. I also suggested that Eclipse, Mozilla, and other non-profit foundations provide an answer.

Lastly, I suggested that governments might get involved to shore up funding for open-source software development. As I noted, governments derive massive benefit from open source (and from IT spending, generally). Why not fund more of it?

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Microsoft To Counter Open Source With 'Basic' Software Line

The software vendor plans to develop versions of its products with "basic functionality" to be sold at lower prices than its standard offerings.

In response to rising competition from open source software that's community developed and often given away for free, Microsoft said it plans to develop versions of its products with "basic functionality" to be sold at lower prices than its standard offerings.

Once the sole domain of self-styled computer geeks, open source software, such as Linux, is now used in products offered by a growing number of large tech companies, such as Google, IBM, and Motorola. Those companies believe they can earn more revenue by selling add-ons and services around the software than they could by charging for the software itself.

Microsoft says it's a growing threat to its commercial software business.
"Open source software vendors are devoting considerable efforts to developing software that mimics the features and functionality of our products," Microsoft said in its annual report, filed last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Indeed, IBM last year introduced Lotus Symphony, a free desktop suite that provides much of what's found in Microsoft's pricey Office package. IBM says that hundreds of thousands of users have downloaded Lotus Symphony, which is built on the open source OpenOffice.org package, since its debut.

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Open source: What you should learn from the French

With open source embraced at all levels, the real benefits of a passionate community arrive

A decade ago, European countries leapt out of the gate to take the lead in the radical open source movement -- none more so than France -- and left U.S. developers in the proverbial dust. Through policies and high-profile projects, the French Republic for years has been advocating for all open source all the time, in government and education.

And France is not stopping: This summer, an economic commission set up by French President Nicolas Sarkozy recommended tax benefits to stimulate even more open source development.

Today, France is arguably the most fertile ground for open source development in the world. The well-known and respected OW2 Consortium for open source middleware has its roots there. Giant corporations, such as France Télécom, have embraced open source whole-heartedly.

The fruits of this labor reveal a lesson that U.S. developers would do well to take note: Everyone prospers when working together under a single, shared technology vision.

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Can open source replace Microsoft Exchange?

Open source projects and vendors are trying a variety of technical approaches to replacing the expensive but ubiquitous Microsoft Exchange. While none is yet a drop-in replacement, some administrators can get a TCO advantage by switching.

Once upon a time at a NASA space flight center a long way away, I was an e-mail administrator. At the time, the 1980s, e-mail was still chaotic. The RFC 822 standard was only beginning to bring rhyme and reason to e-mail. One of RFC 822's competitors, the Common Messaging Calls (CMC) X.400 standard, wasn't making much progress, but then Microsoft adopted it in 1992, added the concepts of folders to it, and re-named the result Mail Application Programming Interface (MAPI). And, ever since, the e-mail world can broadly be divided into two camps: the RFC 822 Internet compliant e-mail group and the MAPI-compliant Microsoft Outlook/Exchange pack.

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Successful Open Source Security Is Knowing What to Secure

Imagine the CIO of a consumer bank who thinks he is running 50 Oracle databases, but now finds out that in fact he has 100 databases installed behind his firewall. He doesn't have any idea where the other 50 came from. He doesn't know the name of the vendor(s) supporting them. And he doesn't have anyone on his IT team assigned to managing them. This scenario would be totally unacceptable That CIO would be shocked to hear that a very similar situation is happening today. But it's not undocumented databases that will surprise him. It is undocumented open source software embedded inside externally facing web and software applications.

Spend Small, Think Small

Often times the philosophy of "spend small, think small" prevails for most IT organizations. Unless an organization is adopting a large open source project such as Linux, special resources are not being allotted to the management of open source adoption.

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Business and open source: Oil and water?

I found this Bruce Byfield article deeply intriguing...and sad at the same time. Intriguing because I think Byfield uncovers a nerve in the open-source business community, and sad for the very same reason.

While I believe Byfield is wrong to suppose that money trumps ideals in all cases--many of us actually set up our licensing to curb our worst intentions while still allowing us to serve financial interests--he is absolutely right that the tension between code freedom and cash freedom will sometimes, and perhaps often, favor the latter. Here is an excerpt that makes reference to FOSS, or free and open-source software:

...(T)he fact that business is friendly to FOSS does not mean that it has adopted its values. The free software camp's concern with philosophical and political freedom has almost certainly not been adopted by most FOSS-friendly companies, while the open source camp's emphasis on increased software quality is probably shared by middle-management at best. Business--gasp!--is interested in FOSS to improve the bottom line, and often no other reason.

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Open Source: The Key to a Software Meritocracy

While the venture capital-funded dot-com boom may be well behind us, there is still hope for programmers to make an honest living. With the growing influence of open source software, the road is paved for businesses to succeed on their merits rather than through proprietary lock-in, writes columnist Jeremiah Gray.

Remember the good old days? Like back in 1999 when you could, as a friend of mine put it, "make a hundred thousand dollars a year for being able to spell Java." Those were the days, back when programmers driving Porsches had become a cliché.

Now, more than a decade after the dot-com boom began, tech people once again find themselves earning less money despite bringing significantly more value to their employers. As demands on technology workers increase each year, we see diminishing returns on our labor. And rather than taking issue, we often find ourselves relieved simply to have not been replaced by cheaper remote employees.

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Open source still looking to shake off concerns

Although open source software has gained a place in enterprise networks alongside proprietary software, it can't seem to shake doubts about security and intellectual-property issues that have long dogged the movement.

"The advantage of open source is that no single entity has authoritative control over a project," says Mark Driver, an analyst at Gartner. "There's no single choke point." One theory holds that because it's open source, software security problems can be discovered quickly, he says. "But one argument says open source is less secure and people can put bad things in it, and that's true, too," he adds.

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Why is Asia not open to open source?

One of the main draws--and selling point--of open source technology is its much celebrated developer ecosystem. But, according to an industry expert, this community spirit seems to be lacking in Asia.

In Singapore this week, co-founder of open source MySQL database David Axmark, observed that while more Asian companies are adopting open source technology, few are volunteering to provide related services.

So, businesses in the region have to rely on global open source vendors and settle for products that may not be customized to their market's needs. Or, they'll have to pay and wait for the vendors to tweak their products and integrate additional components that are localized for the Asian market.

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Nokia to Help Develop Open Source Java Software for Mobile Phones

Nokia has recently announced its decision to join the Eclipse Foundation as a Board member and Strategic Developer. Nokia will contribute software and developers to support the work of the Eclipse open source community.

Nokia’s central role will be to help create a framework for mobile Java development, with support for J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition). This will ultimately provide developers with a sustainable suite of mobile software development tools, allowing them to build commercial Java applications for cellular phones.

“By working closely with Eclipse, and proposing a new open source mobile development tools project, we will provide the more than two million registered developers in our Forum Nokia program with complete integrated tool packages optimized for Nokia platforms,” said Nokia’s chief technology officer and executive VP, Pertti Korhonen. “In addition, developers creating mobile applications will be able to work more efficiently and achieve greater productivity by using the same Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for multiple programming languages and software platforms.”

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Dual licenses and open source: Best of both worlds?

Most enterprises needn't worry about the "viral" aspect of open-source licenses. Because most enterprises use software for internal purposes, rather than distribute it, they don't trigger the standard open-source requirement to contribute back derivative works. A recent Federal Computer Week article by John Moore does an admirable job of clarifying this.

There are, however, instances in which an enterprise might well trigger the contribution requirement of open-source licensing. If a company sold off a division to another company, complete with the servers running modified open-source software, this would likely trigger a "distribution" and might well affect the value of the deal.

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Best of Open-Source Software Awards 2008

If the phrase "open-source software" continues to conjure images of impassioned programmers selflessly collaborating for the common good, it may be because, even as commercial interests are behind many of the most prominent projects, the results are no less inspired -- and typically no less free. Yes, advanced functionality or maintenance and support may require writing a check, but freeloaders looking for high-quality software -- of almost any kind -- have never had it so good.

Chosen by InfoWorld Test Center editors, analysts and reviewers, InfoWorld's annual Best of Open-Source Software awards (or Bossies, for short) celebrate the best products that open source has to offer: the best free software on the planet for businesses, their IT staffs and their employees' workstations.

Our OpenOffice.org2008 winners include 60 products in eight categories: enterprise applications such as CRM, ERP, BI and reporting; collaborative applications, including mail/calendaring, wiki and social networking tools; desktop productivity apps, from office suites to 3-D modeling; platforms and middleware, including operating systems, databases, virtualization systems and SOA integration tools; developer tools, from AJAX and rich Internet apps to Web service testing and version control systems; networking, including server monitoring, routing, Wi-Fi scanning and VoIP software; security software, including firewalls, intrusion-detection systems, disk encryption tools and security testing systems; and storage, including monitoring and administration, backup and NAS systems.

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IBM Brings Open Source for High Performance Computing

IBM (News - Alert), an information and computing technology company, has announced the launch of the first certified package of open-source software for supercomputers based on Linux developed by the company.

The new package, the IBM HPC Open Software Stack, will enable the linking of cluster servers together, so that a single super-fast system can take shape, which will be more productive and also easily manageable.

As more and more companies have begun relying upon the technology of supercomputing, or high-performance computing (HPC), the sector is going through a very rapid growth.

To achieve the maximum efficiency necessary for high-performance computing, different processor types integrated together to form "hybrid" clusters, so that the processing power of different processors can be combined to get the desired effect.

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It’s the law: open source doesn't mean no copyright

Open source software has long been accepted as a legitimate software license by tech-savvy crowds. It's become recognised by business. And even the courts are taking seriously open source software authors rights despite the fact no money has changed hands. This month an Artistic License was tested in court in the case of Robert Jacobsen vs KAM Industries, and upheld as enforceable copyright conditions. It was a landmark decision ratifying the philosophical basis behind FOSS.

First things first; the defendant – KAM Industries – has not been found guilty of violating copyright; the case is not yet over and has been remanded for further proceedings. This case is of significant interest to open source authors and aficionados because of the legal weight it gives to free and open source software, protecting the interests of authors and project teams but no value judgment ought to be made against either of the players.

The story begins many years ago. Robert Jacobsen had been hosting a project on SourceForge called JMRI (Java Model Railroad Interface.) This project commenced on May 7th, 2001, with the goal of providing Java interfaces and sample implementations for controlling a model railroad layout from a personal computer.

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The Pitfalls of Open Source Litigation

Some large companies try to sidestep the tangled web of licenses that apply to open source software.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Optimists say the best things in life are free; realists say yes, but anything that's free costs way too much. Nowhere is that more applicable than in open source (define) software.

Enterprises using open source are being sued for not complying with the multitude of licenses the software comes with.

The problem is that open source software developers call in code from other open source applications. "If you're using only a few open software packages, you're actually using a whole lot more applications because open software builds on things other people have done," Stormy Peters, executive director of the Gnome Foundation, a nonprofit organization that coordinates the efforts of the Gnome Project, told a presentation today on avoiding open source lawsuits. The Gnome Project is a worldwide project to create a free computing platform for public use.

For example, a project using Ant, MySQL and MSQL Server Connector, AspectJ and the Spring Framework would "really use over 90 different open software packages, each of which has its own license," Peters said. "The problem is that it's difficult to find out what other software open software depends on."

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Microsoft continues to woo open-source developers

MANILA, Philippines -- Microsoft is set to launch a developer program aimed at local companies creating applications using the open-source model.

Microsoft recently announced it will open an open-source "interoperability" lab in the country, the first in Asia Pacific, the company said.

The lab, to be located at the National Computer Center, is meant for use by application developers who want to test their software for interoperability with Microsoft products.

D3 Systems, which develops mobile applications running on Java, will be the first to use the lab.

Abet Dela Cruz, Microsoft Philippines platform strategy manager, said the company intends to recruit more open-source companies to join an ISV (independent software vendor) program.

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IBM to open source supercomputing code

IBM Tuesday marked its 10 years of participation in Linux and open source by introducing new software, upgrades to existing platforms and an open source code contribution focused on supercomputing.

The company said its HPC Open Source Software Stack, which includes IBM’s Extreme Cluster Administration Toolkit, was its first ever contribution of open source code for supercomputing.

The announcements were made at the LinuxWorld/Next Generation Data Center conference that opened Monday. (Disclosure: The conference is run by Network World’s parent company IDG.)

The company also introduced a software appliance toolkit and announced it would pre-load Novell SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 in Lotus Foundations to battle Microsoft Small Business Server.

IBM also said it would expand its real-time Linux initiative and it introduced version 5.4 of z/VM, its virtualization platform.

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Linux rises to top dog in servers

LAST week's LinuxWorld talkfest in San Francisco, which brought together 10,000 vendors and users of the open source operating system, offered yet another indicator of its growing popularity across enterprise IT groups and among developers.

The steady march of Linux into ever more central areas of enterprise IT has been visible in the US for about seven or eight years, and has accelerated in the past two.

Once consigned to "non-essential" functions such as serving web pages, Linux is increasingly the basis for software stacks that perform critical data centre tasks.

This trend is likely to continue, and is a remarkable success story for software once ridiculed as unfit for corporate use, but the focus at LinuxWorld was not the story to date, as much as the future - where Linux and the open source apps that often sit atop it may be headed next. The rise of Linux in enterprises has so far come largely at the expense of older, proprietary flavours of Unix such as Hewlett-Packard/UX, AIX and Solaris, rather than Windows, although this is changing and the more direct open source challenge to Microsoft's market share is growing.

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Microsoft creates open-source lab in RP

MANILA, Philippines -- Microsoft is now preaching interoperability, announcing it will open its first open-source lab in Asia Pacific in the country.

The lab will be located at the National Computer Center (NCC) headquarters in Diliman, Quezon City. It will be stocked with hardware and software and will serve as a test and evaluation facility for open source developers who want to make their applications interoperable on the Microsoft platform.

D3 Systems, a local firm that develops mobile applications running on Java (an open source programming language), will be the first to use facility, Microsoft announced in a briefing Thursday.

"There is always a great potential in the Philippines in terms of the skills of developers here," said Ken Wye Saw, Microsoft's vice president for sales and marketing in Asia Pacific, when asked why the software firm decided to create an open source lab in the country.

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Using Open Source in your Business: Myths and Clarifications

ActiveState has released a short white paper entitled “10 Myths About Running Open Source Software in Your Business”. Authors advocate against black-and-white approach to open source that is often adopted by both its zealots and its opponents. They believe that using open source software may foster business development projects but pros and cons need to be weighted carefully and proper safety nets should be put in place to reduce potential risks and to optimize advantages. This white paper can be viewed as a good basis for such a rational approach to OSS, because it refutes a number of common misconceptions about its quality, its usage and its place in today’s industry:

Myth 1: You Have to Choose Between Open Source Software and Proprietary Software
Myth 2: Open Source Software is Free!
Myth 3: Implementing Open Source Software is Only About Saving Money
Myth 4: If You Choose Open Source Software, You Are On Your Own
Myth 5: Licensing is Always a Nightmare
Myth 6: Open Source Software Equals Open Standards
Myth 7: It Is For Non-Conformists
Myth 8: Open Source Software Is Not a Good Choice for Mission-Criti­cal Functions
Myth 9: Open Source Software is Lower Quality
Myth 10: Your Business is Not Using Open Source Software

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At LinuxWorld, problem-solvers hunt open-source solutions

Just about everyone, it seems, is on a mission

SAN FRANCISCO — Here at the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo, it seems as though each of the thousands of attendees is on a mission.

William Hughey, an independent Linux and open-source developer in Bainbridge Island, Wash., was here this week to explore his ideas about new applications for tablet PCs and to look at different hardware platforms on which to build camera software for laptops.

Hughey believes that open-source applications are a key to the popularity of tablet PCs because open source can bring needed features and low-cost or free software. "On tablet PCs, I definitely see open source being behind them," he said. "Everyone sees the iPhone model, where you can sell your product to customers [for use on the device]. I see this for tablet PCs."

Adam Talbot, a Linux and Unix administrator at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., came to LinuxWorld looking for the next generation of high-level Linux-based system-monitoring software for his organization, which runs Linux, Windows and Wind River's embedded VxWorks operating system.

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IBM open sources supercomputer software

IBM has launched its first certified open source software package for supercomputers based on Linux.

The new package is designed to ease the burden of deploying supercomputing clusters.

The computing giant unveiled its High Performance Computing (HPC) Open Software Stack at this week's Linux World/Next Generation DataCentre tradeshow in San Francisco.

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Open Source Code = Insecure Code?

Research released by application security vendor Fortify (www.fortify.com) in July 2008 has highlighted security flaws in commonly used open source applications, some of which are being installed and deployed by large enterprises and government organisations.

The paper, "Open Source Security Study - How are Open Source Development Communities Embracing Best Security Practices?" reports on research undertaken by Fortify into the security of open source projects.

A range of projects were examined ranging from the Derby relational database through to the JBoss application server and the OpenCMS content management server. The projects were analysed using Fortify SCA, a static analysis tool used to detect security flaws in software code. Any major security issues identified by the tool were then checked manually to confirm the finding.

Flaws were uncovered that spanned two or three generations of product, showing a lack of attention for up to 1 year. Across the range of projects analysed, issues per 1000 lines of code (KLOC) ranged from 0.27 through to 178.2. Cross site scripting and SQL injection class attacks were prevalent and clearly still show that developers are missing these code security problems.

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Microsoft warns of open source threat

Microsoft has warned of a growing threat to its business model from open source software.

In its annual report the company has said that it was facing increasing pressure from open source vendors, who Microsoft claims are stealing its ideas and benefiting from its intellectual property.

“A number of commercial firms compete with us using an open source business model by modifying and then distributing open source software to end users at nominal cost and earning revenue on complementary services and products,” it said.

“These firms do not bear the full costs of research and development for the software. Some of these firms may build upon Microsoft ideas that we provide to them free or at low royalties in connection with our interoperability initiatives.”

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Linux developers push for open drivers

A group of 140 Linux developers has called on hardware vendors to open up their driver code.

Backed by the Linux Foundation, the developers signed an open letter addressed to all hardware vendors which have yet to release Linux drivers as open source software.

"We have repeatedly found them to be detrimental to Linux users, businesses and the greater Linux ecosystem," reads the letter.

"Such modules negate the openness, stability, flexibility and maintainability of the Linux development model, and shut their users off from the expertise of the Linux community."

The Linux Foundation said in a statement that closed source drivers ultimately harm the Linux community, which has long prided itself on the open source model in which the source code for a piece of software is open to the public.

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The empty debate over open source security

Last week, Fortify published a study on adoption of security best-practices within the Open Source community. Given mounting risk posed by extensive use of Open Source technologies within business and government IT, we were gratified to see the passionate discussions that followed.

Unfortunately, much of that debate was simply a rehash of tired old themes that we must move beyond to make substantive progress in assuring security of Open Source software. These debates reveal the underlying problem: a lack of understanding and collaboration between developers and security experts – today each are talking past each other when it comes to security.

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