Open source software: The vendor's new friend

If we look back to the earliest computer systems, there have been examples of software development where both application and source code have been offered in the public domain.

The free software movement has been one of the few constants in the industry, transcending all platforms and user groups.

And it's still going strong, thanks to the popularity of Linux (a perfect example of successful open source software) and growing unrest at the power and influence which large commercial software companies are having on the PC industry and the rate of innovation.

The majority of recent open source projects have been development tools or utilities, but innovation is not restricted to these areas. There are major plans in the pipeline for application suites, browsers and operating systems.

Leading the free software charge
Richard Stallman is president of the Free Software Foundation, one of the organisations set up to promote and defend the position of open source software and developers.

Its GNU project centres on the creation of a working base of free software with freely accessible source code, but the principles behind it go beyond technology.

"The Free Software Movement was founded in 1984, but its inspiration comes from the ideals of 1776: freedom, community and voluntary co-operation. This is what leads to free enterprise, to free speech, and to free software," said Stallman.

Part of his work has been to develop various open source software licences, leading to much criticism from commercial developers such as Microsoft. The most controversial is the General Public Licence.

This is the benchmark for open source licensing, but causes problems for commercial developers because of the way it propagates through their own code.

"Whoever wishes to copy parts of our software into his program must let us use parts of that program in our programs," stated Stallman. "Nobody is forced to join our club, but those who wish to participate must offer us the same co-operation they receive from us. That makes the system fair."

Open source business software
In 1999, Sun Microsystems bought a small German software company, StarDivision, as part of chief executive Scott McNealy's efforts to take on Microsoft in the lucrative office applications market.

The company, founded in the mid-1980s, had been developing an office application suite to rival Microsoft Office, WordPerfect, Lotus Smartsuite and other equivalent commercial packages. Sun took the development work and released the first version of StarOffice in early 2000.

StarOffice 5.2 represented a significant change in the productivity software market. Not only was it freeware, it was at least partly compatible with the file formats of its rivals. But, most importantly, the source code was freely available, allowing developers to play with it and work on enhancements, upgrades and complementary applications.

Sun has since built on the original free version and released a new commercial edition, StarOffice 6. At the same time, it has established an open source spin-off, continuing to make the old source code available and putting into place a more formal structure for interacting with the developer community.

It has also produced a totally freeware version, OpenOffice, from which Sun can learn and adapt StarOffice.

OpenOffice is a multi-platform initiative, and already has working applications for Linux, MacOS, and Windows.

OpenOffice 1 has the same code base as Sun's paid-for StarOffice 6 software. It's a multi-feature office suite being touted as a viable replacement for Microsoft Office.

But OpenOffice lacks the support infrastructure of StarOffice, because Sun has not provided 24x7 support and training. StarOffice also has the advantage of additional features, such as a database and special fonts.

"OpenOffice 1 may be the single best hope for consumers fed up with Microsoft's desktop monopoly," explained Eric Raymond, co-founder of the Open Source Initiative.

"With Sun moving to a full service and support business model for StarOffice software, users around the globe will continue to have a free office productivity software tool through the OpenOffice.org open source community."

Sun has already benefited from the initiative, receiving many ideas and examples which it was able to incorporate into the commercial StarOffice 6, as well as inject code back into the open source movement. StarOffice 6 is now part of the SunOne software line, raising the potential for future software development along the same lines.

Brian Behlendorf, chief technology officer at software developer CollabNet, said: "When OpenOffice was released, it was a tremendous amount of code with a very deep history. We knew it would take a lot of time and effort to reach a critical mass of community participation.

"The project has now attracted a significant amount of outside involvement, some of it in pretty interesting areas, such as marketing and quality assurance."

This model of commercial and open source development running side-by-side is not new. Web developer Netscape was one of the first to try, opening up the early source code of its Navigator web browser to the public through its Mozilla scheme.

Netscape's main browser continues to benefit from Mozilla developments, while the scheme has spawned its own browser across multiple platforms.

As well as Windows, MacOS and Linux, there are Mozilla developments for HPUX, AIX, OpenVMS, OS/2, BeOS, Solaris and 64-bit Unix. There are even early developments of versions for Windows CE and PalmOS.

Where is the money coming from?
The problem with free software and its hobbyist roots is one of funding. To turn a piece of software from a personal project to a successful, usable tool takes time, effort, marketing and money.

The biggest problem is the lack of financial backing, according to Bill Claybrook, research director at analyst Aberdeen Group.

"A new open source project would need backing, like OpenOffice has," he explained. "Maybe someone can come up with a better business model, but so far we have not seen the signs of one."

There have been some examples of organic growth and promotion, allowing useful tools to make it without a massive commercial software publisher paying the bills and owning the intellectual property.

But the lack of dedicated funding, particularly since the collapse of the dotcom venture capital free-for-all, has been a major problem.

The economic climate means that independent developers either need to sell their intellectual property to an established player, give it up for free, or embark on the difficult process of trying to market their work themselves.

This can be done either through shareware registrations, or through one of the many small websites that specialise in selling hobbyist software for profit. Either way, the financial position of free software is shaky at best.

But with more commercial developers seeing the collaborative benefits of opening up source code, and supporting the cause in return for help in developing its commercial offerings, it's fair to expect further projects from the major names in software development, and further bickering over the efforts of the likes of GNU.

WHAT IS A GENERAL PUBLIC LICENCE?

One of the most fundamental aspects of the open source movement is the General Public Licence (GPL). This is used by most open source developers to set guidelines for the use, reuse and distribution of software based on their source code. It takes the position that standard commercial licences restrict personal freedom.

But it also lays down clear rules to protect the intellectual property of open source developers, and gives them the necessary legal recourse should someone steal their code for commercial gain.

According to the Free Software Foundation: "The GNU GPL is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software. To make sure that the software is free for all its users.

"This GPL applies to most of the Free Software Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to using it."

The GPL is designed to make sure that users have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if they wish); that they can receive source code; that they can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that they know they can do these things.

But there are still some restrictions on what users can and can't do under the terms of the licence.

For example, if users distribute copies of a program, whether gratis or for a fee, they must give the recipients all the rights that they have. They must make sure that the recipients also receive, or can get, the source code.

One of the key principles enshrined in the GPL, as a protection for the author and as a warning for the user, is that there is no warranty for free software covered by the GPL.

If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, any problems introduced by others will not reflect on, or track back to, the original author.