Open Source Archive

Open source behind closed doors: in the first of a two part series (part II) ZDNet looks at why some open source projects remain secret. "Lots of companies are using our products, they just aren't talking about it", is a popular excuse from software companies, particularly those that offer open source software and services. Deployment of open source software, particularly in the private sector, often appears to be a clandestine activity, with few companies prepared to discuss their involvement.

"TheOpenCD team is pleased to announce the release of TheOpenCD 3.1. Core applications including OpenOffice, Firefox and Gaim have been upgraded to major new versions. The popular game Battle for Wesnoth has reached 1.0 and a range familiar programs appear in minor version updates. The Live CD component is now based on Ubuntu 5.10. Blender has returned in version 2.37a and the MoinMoin Desktop Edition has been added."

ZDNet has published the second part (part I) of its special report on the use of open source in governments around the world. This time it's looking at what's driving open source takeup in developing markets, with a particularly close look at projects and the driving forces behind them in China, India and Brazil.

Some governments have embraced the potential of open source, while others seem culturally opposed to the whole concept. Deciding what lies at the heart of some countries' almost-zealous uptake of open source is not as simple as looking at the cold, hard costs - politics, national security, anti-Americanism and innovation all have a part to play.

The U.K.-based Alfresco kicked off the Open Source Business Conference by unveiling the first production release of its open source content management software. Company CEO John Powell is hoping that an all-encompassing approach to content management, along with the low cost of open source software, will be enough to help his company gain market share in the face of stiff proprietary competition.

The Free Software Foundation is just weeks away from announcing the roadmap and process that will govern the release of the first draft of the rewritten GNU General Public License.

"DR-DOS released DR-DOS 8.1 in the beginning of this month. But instead of an upgrade of the previous DR-DOS 8.0, it's something completely different. The kernel is a badly patched copy of the Enhanced DR-DOS kernel old version 7.01.06 without any credit to its author Udo Kuhnt. The other programs and drivers included are old versions of some popular open source, freeware and shareware products without licenses, documentation or even credit to their authors. This means that DR-DOS 8.1 is just a bunch of old tools plus a compilation of others' works, obviously sold without permission and in violation of their license terms."

Microsoft met with the OSI board this week to discuss their new Shared Source licences. "After their announcement this week, MS did meet with a quorum of the OSI Board and we discussed our commitment to equal application of the license approval process and gave them very preliminary feedback on the licenses as they appear on the MSDN Web site. So far, MS's licenses have not yet been submitted to License-Discuss for public discussion, but OSI is hopeful that they will be," OSI stated. Other OSS prominents, like Tim o'Reilly and, believe it or not, the FSF, have already been positive about the new licenses.

Eben Moglen, the general counsel for the Free Software foundation, discusses issues surrounding the GPL 3 licence in this mini-interview. Moglen also talks about his feelings on the Creative Commons licence set, and how the kernel developers may approach the new GPL.

This software movement is branching into not just mainstream business applications but also the associated services. And venture capitalists are eager to help.

It is evident open-source software has and will continue to impact the software industry and the business models of new and existing companies, as both start-ups and large entrenched players vie to keep ahead of open-source projects. For instance, Marc Fleury's JBoss came out of the blocks as a poster child for the open-source movement.

The next version of the General Public License, GPL3 may tackle the issue of Web companies that use free software in commercial Web-based applications but don't distribute the source code, said Richard Stallman GPL author and Free Software Foundation head.

"The growing popularity of open-source browsers and software may be responsible for the increasing gap between the exposure of a vulnerability and the provision of patch to fix it, security software vendor Symantec has said."

"From its humble origins in the 'hacker' culture of US computer science laboratories in the 1970s, open source software has grown to become arguably the most influential and talked about phenomenon to hit the computer industry since the invention of the microprocessor. Many of the proponents of OSS seem to have been captivated by the idea of a free lunch and may have failed to consider the longer-term effect of OSS on our fragile software ecosystem. Let us examine some of the issues surrounding OSS that aren't normally aired in public."