What is Free and Open Source Software?
Free and Open Source Software refers to software where the author has made the source code freely available to others to view, modify and re-release.
Who would develop FOSS?
By and large, the majority of contributors to the growing body of FOSS are individual programmers. The explosive growth of the Internet has brought together and allowed individuals from around the world to collaborate on projects of mutual interest.
However increasing numbers of private companies are also participating in the FOSS “movement”. For example in 2001 IBM invested $US1 billion in the research and development of the Linux operating system.
Why would a for-profit organisation contribute to a product that will ultimately be given away?
On the surface it would appear very paradoxical that a company seeking to maximise profits would contribute time and money to FOSS. However there are several reasons why companies might – and do – invest in FOSS:
- the FOSS already existed and they are now modifying it for their use
- they intend to facilitate development of a product that will be detrimental to the business of a competitor
- they anticipate significant uptake of the software and intend to privately develop and sell separate applications and services that will function in parallel with the freeware
I have noticed that some allegedly free software has a licence. How can it be called “free” if it’s licensed?
In fact it is this licence from which FOSS derives its strength. Where traditional software licences curb the rights of the consumer, FOSS licences transfer to the consumer certain irrevocable rights.
In particular, the GNU General Public Licence (a popular licence in the free software community) ensures that once a programme is released under this licence the software – and all derivatives based on the original software – remain freely distributable.
It mustn’t be that good if it’s free
Quite to the contrary. Although some FOSS can be quite simple and featureless, other FOSS has been shown to be equal to or better than its proprietary counterparts. A short list of popular, robust and feature-rich free software includes:
- Red Hat (www.redhat.com)
- Open Office (www.openoffice.org)
- MySQL (www.mysql.com)
- Apache (httpd.apache.org)
- PHP (www.php.net)
The Linux operating system is a good example of prime quality software: Linux’s scalability, stability and performance rivals that of expensive proprietary products, yet it remains totally free of charge.
Oftentimes FOSS is more robust (fewer crashes, more secure) than its commercial equivalent. That free source code is freely available for hundreds of programmers to inspect and scrutinise would assist.
Can I use FOSS in my organisation?
FOSS should certainly be considered by any organisation that employs information technology. Below are three examples of free sofware being used by governments and multinational corporations:
- in 2002 the German government awarded IBM a contract that will involve the deployment of the Linux operating system to government departments
- the search engine site Yahoo chooses to use PHP for their web-site scripting
- MySQL is estimated to be running 20% of all database servers
In closing
The free software movement has demonstrated that robust and secure software needn’t only be aquired at a high price. Any organisation that utilises information technology should consider the suitability of FOSS when evaluating new software.
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