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8/9/11

The term free Open Source Software


Next, we discuss this free term software in Open Source software to show clearly what must be true about a particular software program for it to be considered free software. From time to time we revise this definition to clarify it. “Free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. When talking about free software, it is best to avoid using terms like “give away” or “for free,” because those terms imply that the issue is about price, not freedom.

Free software means that the program's users have the four essential freedoms:
• The freedom to run the program, for any purpose
• The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish. Access to the  source code is a precondition for this.
• The freedom to redistribute copies to your friend or neighbor.
• The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others. By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

A program is free software if users have all of these freedoms. Being free to do these things means that you do not have to ask or pay for permission to do so. You should also have the freedom to make modifications and use them privately in your own work or play without even mentioning that they exist. If you do publish your changes, you should not be required to notify anyone in particular, or in any particular way. The freedom to run the program means the freedom for any kind of person or organization to use it on any kind of computer system, for any kind of overall job and purpose, without being required to communicate about it with the developer or any other specific entity.

In this freedom, it is the user's purpose that matters, not the developer's purpose, you as a user are free to run the program for your purposes, and if you distribute it to someone else, she is then free to run it for her purposes, but you are not entitled to impose your purposes on her. The freedom to redistribute copies must include binary or executable forms of the program, as well as source code, for both modified and unmodified versions. It is fine if there is no way to produce a binary or executable form for a certain program, but you must have the freedom to redistribute such forms should you find or develop a way to make them.

If the program's license says that you cannot merge in a suitably licensed existing module for instance, if it requires you to be the copyright holder of any code you add then the license is too restrictive to qualify as free. In order for these freedoms to be real, they must be permanent and irrevocable as long as you do nothing wrong. if the developer of the software has the power to revoke the license or retroactively change its terms without your doing anything wrong to give cause, the software is not free. However, certain kinds of rules about the manner of distributing free software are acceptable, when they don't conflict with the central freedoms. For example, copyleft is the rule that when redistributing the program, you cannot add restrictions to deny other people the central freedoms. This rule does not conflict with the central freedoms, rather it protects them.

“Free software” doesn’t mean “noncommercial.” A free program must be available for commercial use, commercial development, and commercial distribution. You may have paid money to get copies of free software or you may have obtained copies at no charge. But regardless of how you got your copies, you always have the freedom to copy, change the software and even to sell copies. Whether a change constitutes an improvement is a subjective matter. If your modifications are limited, in substance, to changes that someone else considers an improvement, that is not freedom. However, rules about how to package a modified version are acceptable, if they don't substantively limit your freedom to release modified versions, or your freedom to make and use modified versions privately.

Thus, it is acceptable for the license to require that you change the name of the modified version, remove a logo, or identify your modifications as yours. As long as these requirements are not so burdensome that they effectively hamper you from releasing your changes, they are acceptable. Rules that “if you make your version available in this way, you must make it available in that way also” can be acceptable too, on the same condition. Rules that require release of source code to the users for versions that you put into public use are also acceptable.

8/4/11

Advantages of Open Source Software

In the previous post, we explained a little bit about Open Source Software. Other people might ask why Open Source is better than Closed Source. Here we list the advantages of Open Source Software. Usually, the first perceived advantage of open source models is the fact that open source software is made available gratis or at a low cost. 

But this characteristic is not exclusive to open source software, and several proprietary software products are made available in similar ways (a prominent case could be Microsoft's Internet Explorer). All of them combined produce a synergistic impact which is the cause of the real advantages of the open source model. Let us provide some more detail on how do these characteristics turn into advantages: 

  • The availability of the source code and the right to modify it is very important. It enables the unlimited tuning and improvement of a software product. It also makes it possible to port the code to new hardware, to adapt it to changing conditions, and to reach a detailed understanding of how the system works.
  • The right to redistribute modifications and improvements to the code, and to reuse other open source code, permits all the advantages due to the modifiability of the software to be shared by large communities. This is usually the point that differentiates open source software licenses from ``nearly free'' ones. In substance, the fact that redistribution rights cannot be revoked, and that they are universal, is what attracts a substantial crowd of developers to work around open source software projects.
  • The right to use the software in any way. This, combined with redistribution rights, ensures (if the software is useful enough), a large population of users, which helps in turn to build up a market for support and customization of the software, which can only attract more and more developers to work in the project. This in turn helps to improve the quality of the product, and to improve its functionality. Which, once more, will cause more and more users to give the product a try, and probably to use it regularly. 
  • Simple license management .When you use open source software, you would no longer need to worry about licenses. Open source software enables you to install it several times and also use it from any location. You will be free from monitoring, tracking or counting license compliance.
  • Scaling and consolidating.  Linux and open source software can be easily scaled. With varied options for clustering, load balancing and open source applications, such as email and database, you can enable your organization to either scale up and achieve higher growth or consolidate and achieve more with less.
Outsource open source software development to O2I and benefit from high-quality services at a cost-effective price. Open source software can have a major impact on your entire organization. There are several advantages of using open source software.

All About Open Source Software ( OSS )

What is Open Source Software ?
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.

Open source software is very often developed in a public, collaborative manner. Open-source software is the most prominent example of open-source development and often compared to (technically defined) user-generated content or (legally defined) open content movements.

Who create the open source software?
Eric Steven Raymond
Eric Steven Raymond (born December 4, 1957), often referred to as ESR, is an American computer programmer, author and open source software advocate. His name became known within the hacker culture when he picked up maintenance of the "Jargon File" in 1990. After the 1997 publication of "The Cathedral and the Bazaar", Raymond became, for a number of years, an unofficial spokesman of the open source movement. 

The open source label came out of a strategy session held on April 7, 1998 in Palo Alto in reaction to Netscape's January 1998 announcement of a source code release for Navigator (as Mozilla). A group of individuals at the session included Tim O'Reilly, Linus Torvalds, Tom Paquin, Jamie Zawinski, Larry Wall, Brian Behlendorf, Sameer Parekh, Eric Allman, Greg Olson, Paul Vixie, John Ousterhout, Guido van Rossum, Philip Zimmermann, John Gilmore and Eric S. Raymond. They used the opportunity before the release of Navigator's source code to clarify a potential confusion caused by the ambiguity of the word "free" in English. 

Why open source have a license?
The expression open source has wide application. For the OSI it also refers to the distinctive software development methodology employed by many open source software projects. The OSI home page starts with 'Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process.' However, the OSI stops short of defining this methodology in the Open Source Definition, which concerns itself only with the requirements of a licence designed to protect this way of developing software.
The open development methodology conflicts with many of the principles of software development normally taught in academia. Open source software, strictly speaking, may or may not be developed using an open development methodology. The choice of this or any other development methodology is dependent upon a project's chosen route to sustainability.

Why Open Source Software Free Software?
The motives (or at least the emphasis) of the people who use the term ``open source'' are sometimes different than those who use the term ``Free Software.'' The term ``open source software'' (a term championed by Eric Raymond) is often used by people who wish to stress aspects such as high reliability and flexibility of the resulting program as the primary motivation for developing such software. In contrast, the term ``Free Software'' (used in this way) stresses freedom from control by another (the standard explanation is ``think free speech, not free beer''). The FSF has a page written by its founder, Richard Stallman, on why the FSF prefers the term ``free software'' instead of ``open source software''

Types Of Open Source Software ( OSS )  


Apache web server
Apache open source Web server software, made a profound impact on the early development of what we now know as the World Wide Web. At a time when the only other option was Netscape Communications Corporation, now known as Oracle, iPlanet Web Server, Apache came into the ring as an effective alternative.


Linux operating system kernel 
The Linux kernel is an operating system kernel used by the Linux family of Unix-like operating systems. It is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software




Firefox web browser 
The Firefox browser is created by Mozilla, a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote openness, innovation and opportunity on the Web.


Sun's Java programming language and environment
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems (which is now a subsidiary of Oracle Corporation) and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. 

   
MySQL database system
Database based applications are a common type of applications that are widely used, and these applications requires a database system (database engine) to manage their data

FreeBSD Unix operating system 
FreeBSD® is an advanced operating system for modern server, desktop, and embedded computer platforms. FreeBSD's code base has undergone over thirty years of continuous development, improvement, and optimization.
     Sun's 2 OpenOffice  
       OpenOffice.org is both a product and an open-source project. Both have been in existence since October 13th, 2000.The OpenOffice.org project is primarily sponsored by Oracle, which is the primary contributor of code to the project.


    Wire-shark network
     Wireshark is the world's foremost network protocol analyzer. It lets you capture and interactively browse the traffic running on a computer network. It is the de facto (and often de jure) standard across many industries and educational institutions. 
  

Various Of Open Source Software ( OSS ) Web Resource


OSS Website


 
OSS Repository
 
Mailing List
 

 

Criteria Of Open Source Software ( OSS )

1.      Free Redistribution
§       The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.
2.      Source Code
§       The program must include source code, and must allow distribution in source code as well as compiled form. Where some form of a product is not distributed with source code, there must be a well-publicized means of obtaining the source code for no more than a reasonable reproduction cost preferably, downloading via the Internet without charge. The source code must be the preferred form in which a programmer would modify the program.
3.      Derived Works
§       The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.
4.      Integrity of the Author's Source Code
§      The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the license allows the distribution of "patch files" with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license must explicitly permit distribution of software built from modified source code.
5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Group
§       The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.
6.No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
§      The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor.
7. Distribution of License
§      The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.
8.  License Must Not Be Specific to a Product
§       The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program's being part of a particular software distribution. If the program is extracted from that distribution and used or distributed within the terms of the program's license, all parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original software distribution.
9.License Must Not Restrict Other Software
§      The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the licensed software
10.  License Must Be Technology-Neutral
§       No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style of interface.

8/2/11

History Of Open Source




In 1983, Richard Stallman launched the GNU Project to write a complete operating system free from constraints on use of its source code.

In 1989, the first version of the GNU General Public License was published. A slightly updated version 2 was published in 1991.

In 1989, some GNU developers formed the company Cygnus Solutions.

The Linux kernel, started by Linus Torvalds, was released as freely modifiable source code in 1991.

KDE was founded in 1996 by Matthias Ettrich. At the time, he was troubled by the inconsistencies in UNIX applications.

In 1997, Eric Raymond published The Cathedral and the Bazaar, a reflective analysis of the hacker community and free software principles. The paper received significant attention in early 1998 and was one factor in motivating Netscape Communications Corporation to release their popular Netscape Communicator Internet suite as free software. This code is today better known as Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird.

In August 1999, Sun Microsystems released the StarOffice office suite as free software under the GNU Lesser General Public License. The free software version was renamed OpenOffice.org, and coexists with StarOffice.

Linux Vs Microsoft

What is an OSOS?



Open-source means that you can get the source code of the software for free (source code is the code of the program written in a certain programing language). Operating system is the software that you use to operate your PC (like Windows or Linux)


Operating system can be any Linux or UNIX flavour, but important thing is File system. ZFS is best suite for storage, so snapshot, writable clone and replication is free. Most of the storage company used to charge too much money as snapshop/clone and replication license.

ZFS is very simple and convenient. You can use any operating system under vmware or Virtual box that support ZFS so you can manage your logical devices on top of physical devices. You don't need to purchase any hardware or software to manage your storage.

Topic In OSOS

  • Chapter 1 - Open source and linux fundamentals
  • Chapter 2 - Installaion of Linux Distributions
  • Chapter 3 - Linux Desktop Environment
  • Chapter 4 - Linux Files Systems Administration
  • Chapter 5 - Linux Shell
  • Chapter 6 - Linux Networking
  • Chapter 7 - Linux Services and Configuration
  • Chapter 8 - Troubleshoot Linux System