======================== The Open Source Movement ======================== -IAN! idallen@idallen.ca A few quotes from the industry: ---------------------------------------- E-Week Editorial - Software Independence ---------------------------------------- Would you buy a car with the hood locked shut so that only the car vendor could tune or repair it? [...] Open-source software, although viewed by some as risky and uncertain, does empower users in ways that proprietary software does not. Sure, many needs can be satisfied by good-quality, reasonably priced proprietary software. But the absence of the right to access and change source code and then redistribute those changes is one of those things that some people are willing to fight and make sacrifices for. [...] http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1253972,00.asp ---------------------------------- ZDNet: Open source is here to stay ---------------------------------- New technology models don't succeed if all they offer is better, faster or cheaper alternatives to the established market leaders. They have to offer benefits to the user that the old technology model could not deliver. The PC was not better, faster or even cheaper (on a per-user basis) than the mini-computer of the late '70s. But it did deliver benefits to its users that minicomputers could not. [...] The best analogy that illustrates this benefit is with the way we buy cars. Just ask the question, "Would you buy a car with the hood welded shut?" and we all answer an emphatic "No." So ask the follow-up question, "What do you know about modern internal-combustion engines?" and the answer for most of us is, "Not much." We demand the ability to open the hood of our cars because it gives us, the consumer, control over the product we've bought and takes it away from the vendor. We can take the car back to the dealer; if he does a good job, doesn't overcharge us and adds the features we need, we may keep taking it back to that dealer. But if he overcharges us, won't fix the problem we are having or refuses to install that musical horn we always wanted -- well, there are 10,000 other car-repair companies that would be happy to have our business. In the proprietary software business, the customer has no control over the technology he is building his business around. If his vendor overcharges him, refuses to fix the bug that causes his system to crash or chooses not to introduce the feature that the customer needs, the customer has no choice. This lack of control results in high cost, low reliability and lots of frustration. With open source, companies like Red Hat are able to treat our customers as partners in the use of the technology they're building their businesses around. Having control over the technology they are using is the benefit that is enabling users of open-source tools to build more-reliable, more-customized and lower-cost systems than ever before. [...] - Bob Young, co-founder of Red Hat Linux http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-520393.html ----------------------------------------------- E-Week Column - Answering Open-Source Questions ----------------------------------------------- Considering a Linux option? Get your questions answered: [...] One question that hit my in-box late last week was "How do you get support if anyone can modify the code?" I was tempted to reply, "How do you get support if you can't modify (or even see) the code?" [...] http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,850972,00.asp ------------------------------------------------ Free Can Mean Big Money: The Open Source Economy ------------------------------------------------ What does freedom mean if everything in your life belongs to someone else and you have to pay a license every year to use it? [...] An examination of the facts, put in historical perspective, shows that the engines of global progress have always been fed by the sharing of knowledge. In fact, if knowledge about, say, new agricultural techniques, like irrigation, had been hoarded and protected from competition, it would have set back the rise of civilization by centuries. It was precisely because early pioneers shared their knowledge (willingly or not) that the march of progress led steadily on. [...] http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=8054 ------------------------------------ Free Software Leaders Stand Together ------------------------------------ A response to Microsoft's claim that Open Source software is unworkable: [...] With very little funding, the GNU/Linux system has become a significant player in many major markets, from Internet servers to embedded devices. Our GUI desktop projects have astounded the software industry by going from zero to being comparable with or superior to others in only 4 years. Workstation manufacturers like Sun and HP have selected our desktops to replace their own consortium projects, because our work was better. An entire industry has been built around Free Software, and is growing rapidly despite an unfavorable market. The success of software companies like Red Hat, and the benefits to vendors such as Dell and IBM, demonstrate that Free Software is not at all incompatible with business. [...] http://perens.com/Articles/StandTogether.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Linux and open source are at the heart of today's computing technology ---------------------------------------------------------------------- IDC analyst Al Gillen recently said that "Linux is no longer a fringe player. Linux is now mainstream." He made that observation because IDC's research predicts that Linux's overall revenue for desktops, servers and packaged software running on Linux will exceed $35 billion by 2008. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1745120,00.asp