Open Source at Home
Threats
There are few, if any, external threats to the home user in adopting open source software. The threats identified here are more general threats to the open source community, but are worth considering before taking a major plunge.
Forking
The open source philsophy allows anyone to take an existing program and redevelop it in any way they like. This is called “forking” (from the Unix command ‘fork’ that starts a second process running in the background) and has happened most notably to BSD Unix - there are now three major forks of BSD: FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD. While there has never been a fork of the GNU/Linux operating system, there are sometimes forks in application level projects.
Usually quite separate teams work on different forks, leading to a dilution of talent and a duplication of effort between teams. Sometimes forked project die through lack of ongoing support and on rare occasions forked projects are reunited in a merge. All of this muddies the waters for the end-user, but it is not intrisically bad.
Patents and licensing
Major proprietary software vendors have been hoarding software patents for quite some time and some quite frivilous patents have been granted for fairly obvious ideas. The purpose of patent hoarding is to inhibit competition but it is very hard to pursue a patent claim in the proprietary world where source code is generally not available to be examined. However anyone is able to examine the code of open source software - including patent owners. As open source becomes more commercial and mainstream, expect patent owners to make attempts to sue or demand license fees.
In fact, this is already happening. At the time of writing the SCO Group (formerly Caldera), who claims to own the rights to Unix, is suing IBM for a licensing breach. SCO claims that IBM has taken code protected under copyright from Unix and incorporated it as open source in Linux. They are also asking business users of Linux for licensing fees, although their case is yet to be proven in court (which gives the request a hint of extortion). There is also some suggestion that SCO could target individual end-users for licensing fees or legal action, but how they would find them all is anyone’s guess.
Many commentators have dismissed SCO’s tactics as an attempt to make the struggling company a more attractive take-over target for a bigger company such as IBM or Microsoft, while others say it is a minimal threat because if a licensing problem is found open source developers will isolate the code, reprogram around it, and move on.
- Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure campaign against Software Patents in Europe
- The SCO Group
- SCO vs the Linux world…What’s a Linux user to do?
- SCO vs IBM Executive Summary
- The GPL will win, claims law prof.
- It’s going to get expensive for SCO
- Bruce Perens analyses SCO’s first two code “violations”
- More SCO Evidence flawed
- Q&A on SCO vs IBM [PDF]
- FSF’s Position regarding SCO’s attacks on Free Software
FUD
Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) involves trying to convince consumers that a competitor’s product is dangerously defective in some way, by making false or greatly exaggerated claims. Effectively a smear campaign technique, software companies often use FUD as a tactic against each other and recently against open source software as it becomes a bigger target.
Some commentators say that SCO’s legal challenge is simply a FUD campaign, and the infamous claims by Microsoft that GNU/Linux is “viral” and “a cancer” is classic FUD.
- MS-funded think tank propagates open-source lies
- Ballmer: “Linux is a cancer”
- Curing Steve Ballmer’s Open-Source ‘Cancer’ (at time of publication: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/10272.html, now gone)
Conclusion
To those frustrated with the Microsoft Way, or those merely curious about all the fuss, open source software offers a viable alternative. Many of the strengths of open source software are powerful arguments, while the weaknesses are becoming increasingly trivial and easy to overcome. The opportunities go well beyond what I have suggested here, and the threats do not directly concern the home user.
You have little to lose from trying open source software - except perhaps the next Microsoft license fee.
Other links of interest
- Why Open Source Software / Free Software (OSS/FS)? Look at the Numbers! - “This paper provides quantitative data that, in many cases, using open source software / free software is a reasonable or even superior approach to using their proprietary competition according to various measures” (an extensively researched article that provided many leads for this article)
- The Cult Of Linux - a series of reports on GNU/Linux at forbes.com (July 2002)
- Desktop Linux Consortium is “a non profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the use of Linux on the desktop
Post-publication additions
(Dates shown indicate when links were added to this page, not publication dates of the original web pages.)
- (1-Oct-2004) If you knew SUSE … you might ditch Windows Bleeding Edge gives Suse Linux the thumbs-up
- (22-Jun-2004) Novell v. SCO: The Telling Blow? “So, while SCO versus IBM makes most of the headlines, it’s this case, SCO versus Novell, that’s the really vital one. Without a win here, SCO loses it all. It’s that simple.”
- (22-Jun-2004) The previous link can be found in The Battle Over Unix - SCO, IBM and the Future of Linux on eWEEK.com
- (3-Jun-2004) Andrew Tannenbaum makes some notes on the “Who wrote Linux Kerfuffle” and adds some =url “http://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/brown/followup/” follow-up comments =
- (26-Apr-2004) Desk Bound An article from Computer Reseller News considers the possibility of Linux on the desktop [PDF file]
- (29-Mar-2004) Windows-to-Linux†roadmap
- (24-Mar-2004) Is Open-Source Code Really Examined for Security Any More Than Closed-Source Software?
- (8-Mar-2004) Does open source software enhance security? (The Register)
- (5-Mar-2004) Is Open Source Really More Secure?
- (27-Feb-2004) Expanding the playing field for Linux users - I didn’t really mention gaming in the main article, but this article gives some perspective
- (27-Feb-2004) Ten things small businesses need to know about Linux - a very short checklist for small offices making the switch to Linux.
- (20-Feb-2004) Open Source Software as Lead User’s Make or Buy Decision: A Study of Open and Closed Source Quality [PDF]
- (20-Feb-2004) Open Source Culture
- (13-Feb-2004) MS Windows source leaked following the accidental release of Windows 2000 source code, this quote gives a perspective on how fragile is the security-by-obscurity approach of closed-source: “the number of industries and critical systems that are based around these technologies that could be damaged by new exploits found in this source code is something that doesn’t bare thinking about”. In other words, security-by-obscurity is the worst kind of security.
- (10-Feb-2004) Linux in Space - “Rumours that NASA’s adoption of Linux is due to the difficulty of pressing Alt-Ctrl-Delete while wearing thick spacesuit gloves are probably unfounded”
- (10-Feb-2004) Linux Usability
- (8-Jan-2004) Internal memo confirms IBM move to Linux desktop
- (30-Oct-2003) Linux Myths and A Response to Microsoft on Linux Myths - addressing some Microsoft FUD about Linux
First published: PC Update Sept 2003 (online version updated)