free Open source software

Loosely speaking, open source software is free, as in liberty, often as in beer, powerful, ad-free and scumware-free, and it is great fun. In this page I'll provide a brief explanation of what open source is and talk at greater length about why open source is A Good Thing.

Open source software is software for which the source code is available. (Source code is the stuff that the coders write in programming languages). Open source is usually, but not always, free (as in money and as in liberty). Likewise, not all free (as in money) software is open source. The best open source software is "free" as in "liberty" - there are no draconian licences or restrictions and no licence tracking to bother with. If you only use free open source software then you are not at risk from pseudo-legal "anti-piracy" organisations that can raid your property/premises, audit you, and fine you if you have made a mistake. Incidentally, if such an organisation does attempt to gain access, do not let them in! (possibly unless you live in the USA: in the states, crazy rights are granted to corporations to attack their customers. Elsewhere they have no legal entry rights. Proprietary End User Licence Agreements (EULA) that come with non-open-source software says that corporations are allowed to raid you. That includes Microsoft).

There is a frightening trend for proprietary products to contain "copy protection" and other DRM restrictions that stops you doing what you want to do. Want to back up a CD? Proprietary software may prevent you from doing so. Free open source software is free of such annoyances, because open source advocates do not like them, and nor do most intelligent people. We prefer liberty.

Much open source software is released under the GPL (Gnu Public Licence). This means that if you change and distribute the software then you can charge for it if you like, but it is compulsory to publish the source code and give it away free. For example SUSE sell Linux in shrink-wrapped form, but you can download exactly the same software for free from their website. Debian has excellent download options. It is morally better to pay for such software, or donate money to Open Source projects: this is one way to do our bit, put something back and feel good :)

GPL software is vastly varied, ranging from entire operating systems (Linux) to the most common web server on the Internet (Apache) to browsers and email clients (e.g. Mozilla) to an entire office suit (Open Office). Open GL applications run on a variety of platforms and operating systems, reversing the trend of vendor lock-in.

I will return to GPL again soon, but first, is open source software good software?

Perhaps counterintuitively, open source applications are generally of a superior quality to the equivalent proprietary applications. There are various reasons for the advantage of open source software (and I should insert the cautionary phrase "generally speaking" in front of each of these points):

• People enjoy writing open source software: professionals aside, most are not in it for the money. The sense of achievement, the pleasure of giving, of having others use your software is fine compensation. It is hard to underestimate the kudos that comes with being an open source developer. People are more likely to write quality software when it is a labour of love.
• There is a myth that open source applications are written by adolescents in bedrooms. The reality is that people who write open source software are more usually professional and experienced programmers who are either paid by their employers to work on open source projects or they are self employed consultants that develop open source code from which they make a living. Alternatively many professionals work on open source projects in their spare time. They do this for the pleasure of it or because they want to add their own functionality or fix a bug.
• Many organisations fund the development of open source because they use it and make money out of it. Indeed many open source projets started out as proprietary projects that were subsequently released under an open source licence. They do this to popularise their product, thereby squeezing competitors; to lower the costs of its development and maintenance; and even to generate good will, which means good PR.
• It is generally believed that most major open source is more thoroughly tested for bugs than proprietary software equivalents. Bugs are usually fixed more rapidly.

Conversely, proprietary software (which is owned by corporations) has disadvantages compared to open source software because

• Proprietary software is generally less secure than open source equivalents. Proprietary software is usually closed source (you can't read the source code, although all closed source can be "decompiled"). This has the unexpected result that closed source software is less secure than open source software that is freely available. This is not intuitive, but the reason is simple. To attack code you do not need to read the source! You simply probe the binary code for weaknesses and exploit them. This is the default modus operandi of most attacks. Reading the source is very useful for fixing security bugs but is less useful for devising attacks. Truly secure software is secure regardless of whether you can see the source code or not. Hence open source has a natural advantage over closed source.
• Corporations are riddled with managers that tend to be non-technical. Their poorly-informed decisions often lead to dismal engineering practices that in turn lead to terrible software. I've seen this first hand, and there is much anecdotal evidence to back this up.
• Proprietary software applications tend to use file formats that are closed. This means your precious data is locked into the whims of corporations that care only about profit, and not about your data. Think carefully before you attach MS Word docs to emails. It is infinitely better to use open file formats, like plain text, HTML, PDF, or Open Document Format. Open Office documents are in Open Document Format by default.
• Proprietary software has been known to contain "spyware". (Including Windows XP, which contacts Microsoft's servers each time you search your hard disk). In open source software, where anyone can and does examine the code, spyware and "back doors" - code that grants hackers access to your machine - cannot hide and so they are less likely to be submitted or survive for long. Unfortunately this is not the case for proprietary software.
• Proprietary software tends to be less reliable than open source because the latter is usually more thoroughly tested. Project schedule and budgetary pressures limit the amount of testing that can be performed by a corporation. Open source software is not compromised by such constraints.
• It is ironic that Microsoft rabidly attacks the open source movement, yet the most notoriously insecure software on the planet is made by Microsoft. Think Windows, think IE, think IIS, think Outlook. Microsoft systems are cracked by hackers more often than any equivalent systems. Microsoft products also facilitate the spread of viruses, trojans, worms and other nasties more than any other vendor in history. For example, even though IIS is used on fewer machines than the open source web server Apache, IIS is hacked much more frequently. I would never trust Microsoft products if I needed to secure my systems. However I would put my trust into proven open source products like Linux and Apache. (But remember, security is more of a process than a thing, as the mantra goes).

Returning to the GPL (Gnu Public Licence), GPL is a good thing, because it prevents corporations from ripping off GPL open source software. It means corporations cannot parasitically profiteer from the hard work of others without giving anything back. Microsoft have done this on numerous occasions. MS Internet Explorer is ripped off from the non-GPL Spyglass browser, and the TCP/IP stack in Windows is ripped off from the Open BSD operating system (which is also not GPL). Microsoft cannot rip off Linux or Apache code because they are protected by GPL. If corporations like Microsoft insert open source algorithms into a product then they are obliged to publish the source code of that product. One or two corporations (mainly Microsoft) don't like GPL because it prevents them from ripping off free software, but GPL benefits everybody else. Microsoft also corrupts standards by "embracing and extending". They use their monopoly to produce their own standards that, through deliberate inconsistencies and extensions, kill the old one. GPL helps prevent this simply because Microsoft is afraid of GPL.

More enlightened corporations (no mega-corp is good, mind you) are using the GPL to their own advantage. IBM, HP and others are using Linux to great effect, for example by selling Linux-based systems. Corporations can make money out of GPL by offering services and consultancy around GPL products. After all the cost of the software can often be a small fraction of the cost of ownership. (There is no evidence that open source has a higher cost of ownership than software you pay for. Given that open source software is more secure and reliable, the cost of ownership is probably lower than for proprietary systems). And all of us, not just corporations are free to find ways of making money from GPL software too. Everyone is a winner except those unpleasant corporations (chiefly Microsoft, whose "shared source" initiative comes with some disagreeable strings attached) who smear the GPL movement in a misguided attempt to preserve their antiquated business models and ill-gotten monopolies.

Then we have Microsoft's astonishing attempts to corrupt ISO into fast tracking it's truly horrible "OOXML" document "standard". Notice how MS have apparently tried to make OOXML seem as if it is short for "Open Office" XML to confuse matters. The genuine, existing and ubiquitously supported open document standard is ODF, which Open Office and other office suits (except MS Office) supports. In contrast, Microsoft's proprietary OOXML is not even a standard, as literally no one can implement it, not even Microsoft! This shameless fiasco is another illustration for the need for genuinely open standards, which are at least as important than open source. ODF is a genuine standard for documents, but Microsoft opposes the genuinely open standard for business reasons - it will have to compete on competence, not vendor lock-in. All governments should insist on ODF for all documentation that concerns, and/or is paid for by the tax payer. Corps should use it too. And we would all be better off using it. Then our data is safe and accessible for far into the future.

You might notice that I do not like Microsoft :) But I am not profiting from my stance: my opinion is such because Microsoft is predatory and anti-competitive in its behaviour. The latest atrocity by Microsoft is the "Palladium" project (renamed "Next Generation Secure Computing Base") as described here and here. Your computer belongs to Microsoft. Note: the next version of Windows (Vista) will be crippled with "DRM" (Digital Rights Management) as a result of such thinking.

This page is my way of trying to throw my support (however insignificant it may be) behind the open source movement. The GPL is under attack from Microsoft: the FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) that Microsoft is spreading about Open Source software (they are behind the SCO debacle) is shameless propaganda.

If you would like to submit any articles or comments in support of open source, please let me know.

One of the great sensations you get with open source software is that of the freedom that comes with genuine ownership. When you use proprietary software the licence agreement legalese usually says something to the effect that you are renting the software - you do not own the software. You are not allowed to copy it or change it or redistribute it without permission from the corporation. In welcome contrast, GPL software is yours, and you can do with it what you like, as long as you release the source code again if you have modified it and are redistributing it. That is a small and reasonable term. The reason it exists is because it guarantees that the software will be free and freely available. Forever. Proprietary licences rarely if ever allow you the liberty of the GPL licence.

Another real pleasure of Open Source is the sense of goodwill. People use open software and often they like to put something back. They might write a Linux driver for a piece of hardware, or publish a utility they have written under GPL, or join one of the many open source projects out there. In a lonely and alienating world, there is something heartening about seeing people pull together.

GPL is symbolic of freedom in a world of nightmarish corporate greed and intrusion. There is hope! Above all else, open source software is making computing fun again. Long live GPL!

Update: we must pressure our politicians to make it LAW to move all documents to open standards that may be read perfectly by Open Office, without convoluted macros that lock that document into MS Office. In this way, anyone that needs to can read that document without having to buy Windows and MS Office. Keeping documents and templates in MS format is not cheap either, because MS routinely change their document formats and stop supporting old office formats. This is because they need to encourage users to abandon old Office versions and buy the latest version. So moving to an Open Standard that is freely read by any application, not just Microsoft applications, is actually cheaper in the long run, as you don't need to keep up with the Microsoft format treadmill. It benefits us, the people, and not the corporate Microsoft.

For non-American governments, using tax payer's money to buy government software from the richest nation on the planet, hence sacrificing the local economy, is absurd. Again, open source software can be supported by companies that exist within the government's own country, and hence the tax payer's loot stays within the country, and is more likely to end up back in the tax payer's pocket, sooner or later.

Microsoft are panicking about Governments moving to open source standards and open source software. The head of sales at Microsoft, Orlando Ayala, has instructed his salesmen: "Under NO circumstances lose against Linux". Presumably, if you are a big fish, MS will pay you to use its products, which would be illegal. In Germany the city of Munich has decreed that the city be run on Linux, Open Office, and other OS software. Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, cancelled a skiing trip to try to persuade the Munich Officials to reconsider. (He lowered the licence fees by a considerable amount, which is an illegal monopolistic practice, akin to dumping). The Munich officials are sticking to their decision to endorse open source software. This battle needs to be fought and won by all government departments. There is no longer any excuse for governments to spend our money enriching Microsoft at our expense for an inferior product, especially when that means our data is locked in closed formats under Microsoft's control. Please support this cause, it is in our interests if we are to fight corporate domination of our lives, and remain free.

Microsoft is fighting dirty though. A recent, unpleasant MS ruse has been to allegedly encourage SCO to attack Linux by suing IBM, and threatening Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, with a law suit. IBM and Novel will crush SCO, but SCO might scare a few naive bosses off Linux in the short term, which MS hopes will buy it some time. The whole thing is back-firing though, because the storm is making people aware that Linux is to be taken very seriously indeed as an alternative to Windows. Open source must fight hard, because Microsoft is a relentless foe. And Microsoft fights dirtily and illegally, as anti-trust suits have officially proven.

(Note for developers: if they tell you Linux is not scalable, point out that Google is run on Linux, Perl and Python, and scales to hundreds of millions of users. Google said that alternative, proprietary solutions would not scale! On the other hand, MS Windows not so scalable, once you get above just a few machines).

Open Source Links

The list of links below is a bit ad hoc and neither complete nor representative of all the excellent open source sites. Please tell me of any good links to add below.

some open source software & links
Firefox Browser	and Thunderbird email client from Mozilla. Firefox is superior to IE in all respects. For more Mozilla info see Mozilla.org. I write about Firefox etc here. Alternatively see Sea Monkey for a suit of internet apps in one.
Open Office	Free office suit that runs on various platforms. (Incidentally, on a whim, I just converted a simple 73 KB Microsoft word document into an Open Office 1.1 document. The file size is now 14 KB, a fifth of the size). Open Office is proficient at reading and writing MS Office file formats. Sun Microsystems released and Open Office as open source, and support it. You can buy a "commercial" version of Open Office: Star Office.
Gimp	GNU Image Manipulation Program - powerful photo & graphics editing app (runs on various platforms). There's a Gimp book available online too.
Inkscape	"Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format." Alternatively Xara Extreme is now open source on Linux/Unix, and has some advantages and some disadvantages over Inkscape, as one might expect of two sophisticated programs.
Blender	Free, open source 3D modeling and rendering studio. Runs on various platforms.
Art Of Illusion	Another OSS 3D modeling app. Runs on a Java Virtual Machine.
Slashster	Meet people! Post messages. Invite friends! Post pictures! All of these things are possible with Slashster." I joined, give it a go, it's interesting. Why not contact me, and I'll send you an invite.
People aggregator	This is a Friend Of A Friend-type site, like Slashster above.
Celestia	Space simulation/planetarium software
Nutch	At time of writing this is not available yet, but behold is an open source search engine project.
OpenAntiVirus	Anti-virus project, under development at time of writing, but interesting.
Wikipedia	Open content (non-proprietary) online encyclopaedia. OK as a starting point for research, but the content can be unreliable. It's predecessor, Nupedia, quickly expired: this wikipedia link replaced the nupedia link as it happens.
Kopete	"Flexible and extendable multiple protocol instant messaging system designed as a plugin-based system."
Ardour	A "professional" multitrack, multichannel audio recorder and DAW for Linux, using ALSA-supported audio interfaces. Supports up to 32 bit samples, 24+ channels at up to 96kHz, full MMC control, non-destructive, non-linear editor, LADSPA plugins.
VideoLAN	VideoLAN client (VLC) is a superb Video playback application. Does DeCSS automatically, plays DVDs, VCDs, MPEG and DivX. Highly programmable too.
Player	Free Software tools for robot and sensor applications.
Elephants Dream	Open source isn't just for software: "Elephants Dream is the world's first open movie, made entirely with open source graphics software such as Blender, and with all production files freely available to use however you please, under a Creative Commons license."
Wikimedia Commons	Free images, sound and video. "A database of [many] media files to which anyone can contribute".

some advanced/power-user open source software & links
Linux equivalents of Windows software	"This list of Linux equivalents / replacements / analogs of Windows software is based on our own experience and on the information obtained from the visitors of this page".
Apache	The greatest web server out there. Puts the insecure IIS to shame.
Databases	MySQL is a fast database supported by all ISP's. This site uses MySQL. A less ubiquitous but superior database is PostgreSQL (pronounced Post-Grez-Sequel, PostgreSQL is free-er than MySQL as it has no commercial licence). Rekall is not a database per se, but provides a database front-end to extract, display and update data.
Zope	web application server.
Content Management Systems	Bricolage, Plone, Mamboserver
Moodle	Moodle is a education management system for making course homepages with forums, tests, chatrooms, etc. similar to Blackboard and WebCT (both of which are very expensive). Thanks to Tim for sending in that link.
Ogg Vorbis	Ogg Vorbis is an open, patent-free, professional audio encoding and streaming technology (An open source equivalent of MP3). Ogg is as good as or superior to MP3 in quality especially at low bit rates. Ogg is new so more software will appear over time.
Rockbox	"Rockbox is an open source replacement firmware for mp3 players. It runs on a number of different models"
Jabber	Jabber is an open messaging protocol, with advantages over AIM, MSN, Yahoo etc. Jabba support is one of the many protocols supported by Miranda. Miranda is a multi protocol instant messenger client for Windows. KMess is a Linux client for MSN messenger. I must warn, though, that MSN behaves consistently with corporate evil, so don't be surprised when they screw you over. By that, I mean endless ads, spam, viruses, spyware, etc. There are various other messenger clients for Linux that talk IRC, Yahoo, AOL, Jabber etc, these links are not exhaustive.
GNUnet	GNUnet is a framework for secure peer-to-peer networking. The primary application implemented within the GNUnet framework is anonymous censorship-resistant file-sharing.
Free BSD	Free UNIX-like operating system, an alternative to Linux. See also: Open BSD
TMDA	Greatly reduce the amount of spam you receive - works on the mail server, not the client.
Cygwin	Cygwin is a Linux-like environment for Windows.
Open ISO	"The vision of OpenISO.org is to become a truly open international standards organisation." Badly needed, especially due to Microsofts attempts to corrupt ISO into fast tracking it's truly horrible "OOXML" "standard". OOXML is not even a standard, as literally no one can implement it.
SaveMyModem	Linux email tool. Filter out spam. Bounce feature doesn't work on my system and primitive UI. Perhaps too technical for newbies. Tip: be sure to delete the log file now and again.
ROX desktop	Neat alternative to Gnome and KDE desktops.
ImageMagick	a robust collection of techie tools and libraries to read, write, and manipulate images.
Bug Isolation Project	You don't need to be a programmer in order to participate in contributing to open source. One way, if you use Linux, is you can help remove bugs from Linux open source software.
GForge	Open Source collaborative software development tool.
Tutos	"A tool to manage the the organizational needs of small groups, teams, departments..."
OpenGroupware.org	Groupware server
osCommerce	Online shop e-commerce solution
More Biz stuff	SQL-Ledger, GnuCash, TrustCommerce, Horde
Source Control	Subversion is a source control program that improves on CVS, which is dying. Subversion integrates with Eclipse when you use Subclipse. Then there is Git, originally written by Linus Torvalds, who was dissatisfied with existing open source source control apps. The Linux kernel developers now use Git. (IBM's Rational ClearCase is worth a mention, but it is not open source at time of writing).
Open Automation Project	Engineer modular software and electronic components to assemble an intelligent robot suitable for home or office

some linux links
Linux	Linux is an open source operating system. I ditched Windows and use Linux - it is superior. There are many "distributions" (or flavours) of Linux including Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva, Debian, etc. Note, Ubuntu is the easiest Linux to use, and is powerful too. It is my favourite linux as of 2007. Linux is a superior, more powerful, more secure operating system than Microsoft Windows. Newbies may need a little assistance installing Linux, (or installing any operating system for that matter, including Windows, especially the woeful Vista). Windows, at time of writing, has far more games than Linux. Unlike windows however, many Linux flavours (distros) come complete with plenty of excellent quality free applications. Due to superior security built in, viruses simply cannot reproduce, even in theory, on normal Linux (and Mac) installations. Linux viruses simply do not exist in the wild as they are unable to propagate themselves without remote exploits, which are hard to come by in Linux systems. *That* is why there are no linux viruses outside the lab. Scumware/spyware can exist on Linux, if you are tricked into installing it. But nearly all spyware is written to run on MS Windows, because it's relatively easy to get windows to install it, often even without the user's knowledge (IE users are particularly vulnerable). I have removed links to those second rate Linux distributions that have sold their souls - i.e. signed a software patent deal with the Devil (Microsoft).
Linux Questions	Useful for troubleshooting Linux
First Linux	Linux guide for beginners
Linux Directory	links to Linux apps and resources
Find RPM's	RPM PBone search, rpmfind and rpmseek are sites where you can search for, and download, RPM's (and Debian packages). Links2Linux has RPMs specifically for Suse Linux, but try RPM PBone (above) first.
Linux on Laptops	Info for those who now use or are considering using Linux on a notebook or laptop
Desktop Linux	Info
The Linux Documentation Project	Reference
Own Linux? Be counted!	Reference

some open source languages
DevShed	Open Source Web Development Tutorials. See also Lamp Open source development platform
Java	Programming language and platform. Java is being open sourced at time of writing. On that page is more info and quite a few Java links.
Groovy	Groovy is a scripting language designed to be completely compatible with Java. It's a pretty good language too.
LISP	LISP is a programming language that is regaining popularity. See Paul Graham's free LISP book.
Python	Python is is a well-known, dynamically typed scripting language. There is an online python book here: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist. More experienced programmers might appreciate this: Dive Into Python See also Intro to Python, Tutorial by the creator of Python, PythonMagick, which is a python interface to ImageMagick, Python resources, and Installing Python modules
php.net	PHP is an open source programming language often used for server web scripting. (eadon.com uses PHP, though these days I would use Java or Python.). You may need an editor. See PHPEdit (Windows) or Quanta (Linux), or - consider Eclipse with the PHPeclipse plug-in (Linux and Windows). Or buy a Zend IDE.
Perl	Perl is a popular platform independent scripting language. In addition to the perl site, see the CPAN site for free modules. Note, Python is superior to Perl for most tasks, see above.
Jython	"Allows you to run Python on any Java platform"
Java	You can download Sun's Java, which allows Java programs to run on your machine See my Java pages.
Web Authoring Tools	Quanta Plus runs on Linux (KDE desktop). Quanta is a little rough here and there, for example the new WYSIWYG editing feature is slow and buggy on my system at time of my writing this (Aug 2006) so I stick to the "source editor" for most things. Quanta is improving, it is becoming impressive and user friendlier. I'm using Quanta to maintain this site. On the other hand, the once-superb Dreamweaver was getting worse if DW MX was anything to go by so I abandoned DW. Incidentally DW MX (not MX 2004 at time of writing) can run on Linux via Crossover Office. A cross patform web editing tool is NVU, which is coming along. Finally, Mozilla Firefox has a javascript debugger, a DOM inspector, and a magnificent extension, Web Developer which nicely complements HTML editors. For example Web Developer can validate any page open in firefox via the W3C html/css/links validators. Indispensible!

open source info
SlashDot	Tech news site, with many stories on Open Source.
Open Document Format Alliance	Microsoft Office documents are a hazard to your data, because those formats are closed. In effect your data is controlled by Microsoft and can you really trust MS? The Open Document Format (ODF) is the open and perfectly viable solution to this increasingly important issue. Every person and organisation should store its data in open formats subject to genuinely open standards.
Freshmeat	Find and download software
SourceForge	World's largest Open Source software development website. Can also be useful for finding apps
Wiki links	Open source links wiki-style
Against Word Attachments	Take action, as suggested in this excellent article, We Can Put an End to Word Attachments
Gnu and the Free Software Foundation	Benefits humanity. Founded by Richard Stallman, see RMS.
Free Software Foundation Europe	The European branch of the FSF.
David A. Wheeler	Excellent info and insight on Open Source
Free/Open source papers	Research papers from the accademic community
netproject	UK open source seminars, consultancy and events
Open Source Technology Group	Aims "to provide unbiased content, community, and commerce for the Linux and Open Source communities"
Windows Refund Success	Get your hard-earned back from MS!
Linux in schools	Linux Journal: A look at the success of Linux in schools, and how it should constitute the model for state and local government.
Linux in schools again	"Linux is free in terms of cost and in terms of development because it's based on Open Source software. We are free to adapt the work of others for use in our schools. This kind of freedom produces better software and makes Linux the right choice for schools and agencies concerned with the ethical use of public funds."
School Forge	"Schoolforge's mission is to unify independent organizations that advocate, use, and develop open resources for primary and secondary education."
SchoolTool	"Common global school administration infrastructure that is freely available under an Open Source licence"
The OpenCD	The OpenCD is a showcase collection of open source software for MS Windows, aimed at a non techies. See also Pricelessware.

open source hall of shame
Palladium FAQ	Microsoft's latest ugly DRM (Digital Rights Management) plan to stop us choosing how we use our computers. (They want to dictate whether you are allowed to view and copy files etc. on your own machine!). Update - Palladium DRM "technology" has ended up in Windows Vista. You have been warned!
Microsoft "security" patches change EULA	As if spyware in patches was not enough, if you want your Windows machine to be secure, you must let microsoft have free reign on your PC. (Moral: don't use Windows).

Java

open source related links on this site
Techie Links	More techie resources
Java	Java, Java links and Java programming and development.
Open Source	Go to top of this page
Memo	A memo on OS
About Mozilla	My comments on using Mozilla (and Firebird & Thunderbird) for browsing and email

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From:	eric-paul	Subject:	open source	2003-07-04 20:53:28
From:	Peter Jones	Subject:	Other	2006-06-01 05:58:27

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