YashLabs

Foreword

This is a text I wrote in 2003, seven years ago, and I thought it important to repeat it here to see how many inroads Open-Source software has made in our lives, in the Enterprise and in Governments. I consider this foundational knowledge (you must also read all the linked information, especially the Microsoft Halloween Documents) and these are things I spent years in a LUG explaining to people interested in open source software. Many discussions revolved around the licenses as far as I can remember. A follow-up post will surely be in order to showcase and analyze how far we have come in just seven years and how pervasive open source is on the Web, in the Enterprise, in Governments worldwide, and generally, in our lives.

1. Introduction

This text introduces the history of GNU/Linux, Free and Open Source Software as well as their advantages in a succinct manner. Strictly speaking, it would be more precise to begin chronologically with GNU and Richard Stallman. However, I have preferred to mention what is more familiar before moving onto less known territory so as to enable the reader to connect the dots himself/herself more easily.

2. Linus Torvalds and Linux

Linux is an Operating System compatible with the Posix standard. Linux is an O.S. that is very secure, very fast, very robust, and above all, it is free and its source code is freely available.

Linux was initially an Operating System kernel, designed and developed originally solely by a young Finnish student, Linus Torvalds. In 1991, then aged 21, and in his second year of Information Systems studies at the University of Helsinki, Linus Torvalds began developing the Linux kernel. He started off on his own and on an affordable machine with an Intel 386 processor. Later on, however, he decided to make the kernel, as well as its source code, accessible to other people freely by putting them on FTP sites.

The reasons that motivated Torvalds to develop Linux were:

• The high cost of the hardware and software necessary at the time to run a UNIX environment

• The inadequate features and the slow reaction to positive feedback for the MINIX Operating system built by University Professor, Andrew Tanenbaum. MINIX was mostly used within academic circles.

• The great delays suffered by the project of development of an Operating System for GNU, launched nearly 9 years before by Richard Stallman.

The free availability of the source code to the public had the result that a growing number of people were offering either feedback in the form of verbal descriptions or in the form of enhanced code to Linus. Ever since, the Linux system has always been continuously improved this way by the collaborative work of many people throughout the world. These collaborators usually work voluntarily, often during their spare time, and many do so for free.

More than ten years later, in our days, Linux is a system which is widely used in all fields where these characteristics are needed: dependability, security, robustness, speed, an economical approach, together with the possibility of customising the source code.

Linux can be found within commercial companies like Boeing, Government infrastructures, the Educational sector, and that of Research. N.A.S.A. also uses Linux.

Numerous enterprises have migrated their operations and their software to Linux for its strengths like robustness, security, and its positive economic impact on the bottom line. Many CGI effects in recent Hollywood blockbusters have been produced by software running on Linux. IBM is a great supporter of Linux. Oracle, PeopleSoft and SAP have all started migrating their product lines onto Linux.

Links:

• Leader of the Free World @ Wired Magazine
• Why Linux is Great
• The Greatest OS that (N)Ever Was @ Wired Magazine
• Open Sources

3. Richard Stallman, GNU and the FSF

A particular license governs the use of the Linux source code, the GPL. The acronym stands for the GNU Public Licence, which stipulates, among other terms, that whoever modifies the source code has the duty of injecting the new source code back into the user community.

GNU is a project that existed prior to the advent of Linux, and launched by Richard Stallman. Stallman was a Harvard student who also worked for a long time in the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the AI Lab. Within the AI Lab environment, there already existed a culture of source code sharing, so that all employees could bring their individual enhancements to benefit the community. These collaborations, together with the approach of code sharing, solved numerous problems with the hardware and the software at the time. In 1983-1984, Richard Stallman built this approach into a project, which became his life project, and in a way his masterpiece. The idea of GNU is to produce and promote a combination of Operating System and Free Software compatible with UNIX, for free if possible, or for a nominal fee to all those who would need such a system.

Within the GNU sphere, the notion of ‘Free’ as in ‘Free Software’ describes the following characteristics for the user, who can:

• Use it freely,
• Give it to somebody else freely,
• Modify it freely,
• Sell it if he/she wants,
• Use part of it in another work, even in a commercial one (provided the license allows this)

Richard Stallman went on to found the Free Software Foundation, the FSF, specifically to promote the notions of freedom associated to Free Software. From his own individual effort, and later through the contribution of hundreds of other persons throughout the world, the GNU Project grew into a myriad of freely available software for the masses. For instance, GNU Emacs, the customisable multi-editor, and GCC, the set of GNU compilers, are software initially designed and coded by Richard Stallman, but to which others have contributed afterwards.

However, the Operating System planned by Richard Stallman, the GNU Hurd, remained in development for very long, which rendered his overarching project incomplete. Indeed, even though GNU software were becoming more numerous and freely available, one still needed the costly UNIX environments to use them while Stallman wanted to democratise access to both an Operating System and applications.

Links:

• GNU
• Free as in ‘Freedom’
• Open Sources

4. GNU/Linux, Internet collaborations and other synergies.

Therefore, it is thanks to the fusion of the concepts and applications of the GNU Project to the Linux Operating System that Richard Stallman’s dream could materialise. In fact, Stallman insists rightly, that what is commonly called a Linux distribution, should be more correctly named a GNU/Linux system.

A Linux distribution is in reality, a collection of GNU Software with the Linux Operating System, generally regrouped and distributed freely (FTP, CDROMS) or commercially (often in a box with CDROMS and printed manuals) by teams or by companies like Red Hat, SuSe, Mandrake, etc…

The advent of Linux also strongly benefited from the possibilities of distant collaboration offered by the pre-Web Internet core during the 1983-1995 period (e.g. mailing lists, Usenet, FTP, etc…). More recently, the development of open source projects has also relied on web-enabled collaborative frameworks like Sourceforge and Discussion Forums.

5. Eric Raymond and ‘Open Source’ Software.

Eric Raymond is one of the collaborators to the GNU project. Actually, he developed the SendMail software. In addition, he is a fine observer of the collaborative development process that is specific to the GNU/Linux, Free and Open Source Software realm.

In his many texts available online, among which “The Cathedral and The Bazaar”, he describes his view of why Open Source succeed where others fail. In his opinion, the approach of code sharing and open collaboration has enabled the development of the complex ensemble GNU/Linux. This is to be contrasted with many commercial companies that have whole development teams which falter over the rising complexity of software systems.

In other words, Eric Raymond believes that what explains the greater dependability, security and robustness of the software developed with this particular collaborative approach, is precisely the open collaborative development model with the freely available source code. According to him, this is partly explained because there is a growing number of collaborators. Hence, any bug will most probably be trivial and easily solvable to at least one or some of the collaborators. And within traditional software development in commercial endeavours, while the development times can be estimated, the time taken for the discovery and elimination of bugs often remains unknown.

In reality, there are examples whereby some bugs linked to security were eliminated within a one-day period, thanks to one or more collaborators via the Internet. This great reactivity is to be contrasted with a commercial company who will first deny the existence of the bug, and later take a timeframe of about two weeks to solve the problem. In the meantime, the system user finds himself stuck with a vulnerable environment.

In 1998, Netscape announced that the source code of its web browser would be made available freely. Raymond interprets this as the first example of consideration – by a commercial company – of the superiority of the Open Source Development and code-sharing model (as promoted by Stallman, Torvalds and the other numerous collaborators of the GNU/Linux environment).

Furthermore, he realised that it became necessary to better formalise and express the Open Source concepts because he extrapolated that in the future, there would be more close collaborations between commercial companies and the mostly altruistic and non-business oriented collaborators of the GNU/Linux project. He therefore decided to adopt the terms “Open Source”, rather than the “Free Software” championed by Richard Stallman. Apart from certain fine print details, globally, these terms can be interchanged without any problem in many cases. However, it seems the term “Open Source” is more common these days than “Free Software”.

Eric Raymond, therefore, launched “The Open Source Initiative“, an organisation which describes and promotes the advantages of Open Source Software.

Links:

• O.S.I.
• The Cathedral and the Bazaar
• Open Sources

6. GNU/Linux in Mauritius

GNU/Linux is present in Mauritius in various sectors. However, it is probable that GNU/Linux is subject to a weak visibility. It is with the perspective of making people more cognisant with these subjects: the Linux Operating System, the GNU applications, Free Software and Open Source that this text has been written.

The advantages for various sectors of the country, or for specific and strategic projects are numerous. Let’s take the Cybercity initiative as an example: all GNU/Linux products are strongly based on Open Protocols and Open Standards that are at the heart of Internet communication. Better still, studies have shown that some of the implementations of standard protocols and in the GNU/Linux products are the best in the world (e.g. the TCP stack).

This means that GNU/Linux adoption better prepares the country’s integration into the new world-scale economy, of which a great component is e-commerce via Internet, by going through an optimised economic investment. This, especially at a time when commercial companies are known for their monopolistic practices, their goals being to continually raise their software product prices, or lock-in the users within either exploitative licences or non-standard/closed protocols.

It is especially important to do a proper evaluation for specific and strategic projects within the Government because costs are often transmitted onto the citizens. Governments of various foreign countries have either decided to make strong evaluations of the GNU/Linux alternatives or decided to adopt them altogether within their projects or within their infrastructure. Countries which have considered GNU/Linux or are using Open Source software are: Brazil, Peru, France, Germany, USA, China, South Africa, England, Vietnam, India, and others.

If you are within the Government, the Private Sector, the field of Education, or a home user, for more information about GNU/Linux, Free Software and Open Source Software, it is highly advised to regularly visit the MLUG web site (see below).

The local GNU/Linux landscape consists, among others, of:

1. The Mauritius Linux User Group (also known as Linux User Group of Mauritius), for which this text was created.

One can visit the website or subscribe to the mailing list at M.L.U.G.

2. Linux User Group of the University of Mauritius

3. IBL, representing the company Red Hat which sells a well-known GNU/Linux distribution, and partner of IBM, a huge promoter and vendor of Linux products

4. Tuxcafé, a cybercafe entirely built with machines running GNU/Linux

5. Mauritians Using Linux Group or M.U.L.G.

Links:

• A Timeline of Open Source in Government @ O’Reilly’s linux devcenter.com (covers the period 1995 – 2002)
• Linux in Government
• Use of free software in government agencies (Exposure of Reasons for passing a bill by the Government of Peru)
• Letter from Microsoft to Peru congressman Villanueva Nuñez – English translation 1
• Reply by Congressman Villanueva Nuñez to Microsoft
• Peruvian Congressman refutes Microsoft’s “Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt” (F.U.D.) concerning free and open source software @ O.S.I.

More resources on Linux in Government:

• Linux in Government @ Linux Journal
• Linux in Government @ LinuxWorld.com

Linux and Microsoft:

• ‘Halloween’ Documents at OSI
• What’s so bad about Microsoft?
• What alternatives are there to Microsoft?