This document provides an introduction to general concepts and business ideas related to free and open source software (FOSS). It defines FOSS and discusses the four basic freedoms of FOSS, including the freedom to use, study, modify and redistribute FOSS. The document differentiates between FOSS and proprietary software and identifies some FOSS business models. It also discusses FOSS licensing models and provides resources for staying up-to-date with the FOSS ecosystem.
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Free and Open Source Software for Business: An Introduction
1. Free and Open Source Software for Business: An Introduction James Kariuki Njenga Department of Information Systems University of the Western Cape Introduction to general concepts, and business ideas of FOSS
2. James Kariuki Njenga University of the Western Cape [email_address] ; [email_address] http://www.elearningfundi.net http://www.uwc.ac.za Introduction to general concepts, and business ideas of FOSS
25. Freedoms in Free Software "Free software" is a matter of liberty , not price. To understand the concept, you should think of " free " as in " free speech ," not as in " free beer " Richard Stallman freedom 0:Run the program, for any purpose.
44. You may not use for any other purpose other than the one it was made for. Can you make money in FOSS as you can in proprietary?
45. The Linux Story - Movie Watch the first 19.41 minutes of the movie “Revolution OS”: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7707585592627775409 Identify the key learning points based on the following: Motivation for establishing a FOSS project
57. FOSS vs Proprietary – a bizview Access code, 'free' download, reuse Buy – don't build or code Freedom to modify Vendor locking Customize to one's needs Lack of customisable features Ease of localization Deployed for limited locale(regions & languages) Extrinsic & Intrinsic motivation Extrinsic motivation Generation of shared knowledge 4 common good Generate knowledge for competitive advantage Distributed support 'Singularity' in support Ease of compliance Difficult to comply What feature/attribute will be more appealing for your business?
58. Extreme imaginations, demystifying the myths (1) It's a Linux vs Window thing > 400, 000 FOSS projects Floss is not reliable or supported More reliable, better supported especially in major FOSS solutions Big companies don't use FLOSS HP, SUN, IBM, Oracle, UWC, UEM...... promote FOSS FLOSS is hostile to IP Licenses are based on copyright law(s) There is no money to be made in FOSS Get facts right – HP $2.5B in 2003, Redhat $400M in 2006
59. Extreme imaginations, demystifying the myths (2) FLOSS movement is unfair and unsustainable >50% of FOSS developers are paid others are intrinsically motivated If you start a FOSS project, many developers will work for you for nothing Community growth requires significant investment FLOSS is for the geeks, the programmers Never, it is for solving real problems for ordinary people FLOSS is always steps behind proprietary software Innovative index is almost parallel at 12%, probably more for FOSS at the user level What are some of the myths about FOSS being propagated in your environment?
60. Exercise One: Examples of FOSS Visit the Free Software Portal's Category section and list at least five categories of software that you have used or heard of in the last year.
61. In each category, list at least one software you would want to use before the end of the training period http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Free_software/categories What software categories do you think would be suitable for your context? why?
63. FOSS as an Industry/Business Driven by profits or generating revenue (How) Contracted product support e.g. Mail Server support for an organization, Linux support
91. Horizontal OpenOffice Freemind Firefox Thunderbird Development Installation Integration X X X X Maintenance & Support Training Certification Migration
92. Vertical Audacity VirtualDub eXe GIMP Development X Installation X Integration X Maintenance & Support X Training X Certification X Migration X
93. Eclectic MediaWiki Moodle Miro qBitorrent Development X X Installation X X X X Integration X Maintenance & Support X Training X X Certification X Migration X
94. Exercise Two: Group Case Just like the cases identified for use of in eLearning, identify an industry that can use a 'cocktail' of FOSS projects/software in its different phases or departments or functional areas.
95. Tabulate the service configuration matrix that you think would fit into the industry given the software you have selected
103. How does FLOSS communities change the costs of development, production, copying and distribution? Take the example of an Operating System and do a costing based on: Lines of code(LOC)
149. Module 1.5 Leading FLOSS resources for keeping yourself updated on the current FLOSS eco-system
150. Exercise Five: Finding resource Pages 30-31 of you module notes provides three categories of resources: News, interviews and conferences on FLOSS and business
152. FLOSS related networks/institutions In the software you identified in exercise two (Exercise Two: Group Case), search for at least two of the software, search for news related to them, and any other information about them, and write 5 bullet points on each of them.
153. Contact me James Kariuki Njenga Department of Information Systems University of the Western Cape Tel: +27 21 959 3243 Fax: +27 21 959 3522 jkariuki@gmail.com; jkariuki@uwc.ac.za http://www.elearningfundi.net http://www.uwc.ac.za