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Open Source Basics

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Ross Gardler
Ross Gardler

The document provides an overview of open source software. It discusses what open source is, the benefits of considering open source for procurement and development, and common myths about open source. It also summarizes the results of a national survey on open source adoption in UK higher and further education that found an increasing trend toward using open source. The document concludes by offering the services of OSS Watch to provide help and advice on open source issues.

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Open Source Basics Ross Gardler OSS Watch Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this presentation are © 2008 University of Oxford and are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 England & Wales licence .
Contents Who are OSS Watch? What is Open Source? Why should you consider open source? For procurement For development How to get help with open source
Who Are OSS Watch? National innovation centre supporting open source in Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE) Free of charge for FE and HE JISC-funded since 2003 (4th period of funding) Who: Ross Gardler, 5 staff, 4 contractors Where: Oxford University Computing Services
What We Do Advice on all things open source Procurement, engagement, development, legal [email_address] Services Consultancy, events, presentations, community [email_address] Publications Briefing notes, surveys, case studies, slides http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/
What we don't do Advocacy Legal Advice (but we do give advice) Teaching programming Develop software for others Recommend specific software
Contents Who are OSS Watch? What is Open Source? Why should you consider open source? For procurement For development State of Open Source in the UK HE and FE sector How to get help with open source
Open source is a licence Software released under an OSI approved licence (http://www.opensource.org)
Open source definition Unrestricted redistribution Source code availability Derived works allowed Integrity of the author's work No discrimination against persons or groups etc. http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php
Its not just a licence “ The real value of open source software is that it allows communities to work together and solve problems” [7] I. Wladawsky-Berger, IBM Sustainable communities Open formats and standards Open development
Open Development
Myth: Anarchy and volunteers Linux Foundation board Not for profit with a board from Novell, Oracle, Fujitsu, Intel, IBM, Hitachi, HP, AMD, NEC, Texas Instruments, Motorola Sun Microsytems: 34+ projects including Open Office and MySQL For profit software and hardware company Mozilla Foundation: half a dozen projects including Firefox and Thunderbird not for profit arm of a commercial body Apache Software Foundation: 63 projects including HTTPD Not for profit supported by many big players
Contents Who are OSS Watch? What is Open Source? Why should you consider open source? For procurement For development State of Open Source in the UK HE and FE sector How to get help with open source
Official Guidelines UK Government policy to consider OSS solutions alongside proprietary ones in IT procurements. Contracts will be awarded on a value for money basis [2] Eurpean Commission policy to consider OSS solutions the same way as proprietary ones in IT procurements. Contracts will be awarded on a value for money basis [3] JISC-funded policy is that open source is the default option for development work and they must not discriminate between open source and closed source software [4]
Market Reality “ Open source is the most significant all encompassing and long-term trend that the software industry has seen since the early 1980s” [5] IDC report “ By 2012, more than 90 percent of enterprises will use open source in direct or embedded forms" [6] Gartner report
Your needs demand Open Source? Flexibility Interoperability Do you consider this to be “single-vendor”? Avoidance of lock-in Viable alternatives Support options
Myth: Free (as in Beer) There are costs such as staff, support, training But you can save money 50% companies deploying more than 25 open source products report grater than 20% savings in IT budget, InfoWorld [1] 1% companies report costs went up, InfoWorld [1]
Myth: There is no support for open source Oracle, IBM, Sun, HP, Red Hat and many others will sell you support contracts Many smaller companies Anyone can get the source, anyone can provide support Limited support through project channels
MYTH: Open source is not “commercial” Worldwide revenue $1.8bn in 2006 rising to $5.8bn in 2011 [5] IDC report Mozilla Foundation & Co-orporation: $76M revenue in 2007 MySQL sold for $1Bn ZenSource sold for $500M
Contents Who are OSS Watch? What is Open Source? Why should you consider open source? For procurement For development State of Open Source in the UK HE and FE sector How to get help with open source
National survey 2008 ICT Directors from 454 FE/FE+HE institutions 161 HE institutions 19% response rate
Policy Vs. Practice Policy In 2006, 30% institutions mentioned open source In 2008, 57% Staff contributions regulated only in 14% Practice In 2006, 77% considered open source In 2008, 87% only 15% considered equally alongside closed source!
The trend is more open source Server software: All or almost all closed source Down from 56% to 40% Half open and half closed source Planned to increase from 3% (present) to 11% (future) Similar trends seen on desktops
Top Reasons for FE to reject OSS Servers: Lack of staff expertise and support Poor quality Desktops: Not what users want lack of staff expertise no solution for our needs lack of support
Contents Who are OSS Watch? What is Open Source? Why should you consider open source? For procurement For development State of Open Source in the UK HE and FE sector How to get help with open source
Conclusions and Help OSS Watch is here to help you [email_address] Open source starts with a licence, but works thanks to the community and development practices Small and big businesses... but are they reaching FE? Trend pro-open source: Quite clear: authority guidelines and market Milder: FE
References [1] InfoWorld. Open Source Management: Trends, Requirements and Future Needs for the Open Source Enterprise. White paper. Downloaded 28 Oct 2008. http://www.infoworld.com/pdf/whitepaper/InfoWorld_Open_Source_Management.pdf 2] e-Government Unit, Cabinet Office. Open source software, Use within UK Government. Version 2. 28 Oct 2004. http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/documents/oss_policy_version2.pdf [3] S. Kallas. Answer given by Mr Kallas on behalf of the Commission. Parliamentary Questions. 17 Sep 2008. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getAllAnswers.
References [4] JISC. Policy on open source software for JISC projects and services. Last revision 24 Jan 2005. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/about_opensourcepolicy.html [5] A.C. Picardi et al. Open Source in Global Software: Market Impact, Disruption, and Business Models. IDC report. Jul 2006. http://www.idc.com/research/viewtoc.jsp?containerId=202511 [6] Y.V. Natis et al. The State of Open Source, 2008. Gartner Report. Apr 2008. http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?id=638643 [7] I. Wladawsky-Berger, Head of IBM's e-Business on demand initiative. Keynote address at OSBC 2005. http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail495.html

More Related Content

Open Source Basics

  • 1. Open Source Basics Ross Gardler OSS Watch Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this presentation are © 2008 University of Oxford and are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 England & Wales licence .
  • 2. Contents Who are OSS Watch? What is Open Source? Why should you consider open source? For procurement For development How to get help with open source
  • 3. Who Are OSS Watch? National innovation centre supporting open source in Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE) Free of charge for FE and HE JISC-funded since 2003 (4th period of funding) Who: Ross Gardler, 5 staff, 4 contractors Where: Oxford University Computing Services
  • 4. What We Do Advice on all things open source Procurement, engagement, development, legal [email_address] Services Consultancy, events, presentations, community [email_address] Publications Briefing notes, surveys, case studies, slides http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/
  • 5. What we don't do Advocacy Legal Advice (but we do give advice) Teaching programming Develop software for others Recommend specific software
  • 6. Contents Who are OSS Watch? What is Open Source? Why should you consider open source? For procurement For development State of Open Source in the UK HE and FE sector How to get help with open source
  • 7. Open source is a licence Software released under an OSI approved licence (http://www.opensource.org)
  • 8. Open source definition Unrestricted redistribution Source code availability Derived works allowed Integrity of the author's work No discrimination against persons or groups etc. http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php
  • 9. Its not just a licence “ The real value of open source software is that it allows communities to work together and solve problems” [7] I. Wladawsky-Berger, IBM Sustainable communities Open formats and standards Open development
  • 11. Myth: Anarchy and volunteers Linux Foundation board Not for profit with a board from Novell, Oracle, Fujitsu, Intel, IBM, Hitachi, HP, AMD, NEC, Texas Instruments, Motorola Sun Microsytems: 34+ projects including Open Office and MySQL For profit software and hardware company Mozilla Foundation: half a dozen projects including Firefox and Thunderbird not for profit arm of a commercial body Apache Software Foundation: 63 projects including HTTPD Not for profit supported by many big players
  • 12. Contents Who are OSS Watch? What is Open Source? Why should you consider open source? For procurement For development State of Open Source in the UK HE and FE sector How to get help with open source
  • 13. Official Guidelines UK Government policy to consider OSS solutions alongside proprietary ones in IT procurements. Contracts will be awarded on a value for money basis [2] Eurpean Commission policy to consider OSS solutions the same way as proprietary ones in IT procurements. Contracts will be awarded on a value for money basis [3] JISC-funded policy is that open source is the default option for development work and they must not discriminate between open source and closed source software [4]
  • 14. Market Reality “ Open source is the most significant all encompassing and long-term trend that the software industry has seen since the early 1980s” [5] IDC report “ By 2012, more than 90 percent of enterprises will use open source in direct or embedded forms" [6] Gartner report
  • 15. Your needs demand Open Source? Flexibility Interoperability Do you consider this to be “single-vendor”? Avoidance of lock-in Viable alternatives Support options
  • 16. Myth: Free (as in Beer) There are costs such as staff, support, training But you can save money 50% companies deploying more than 25 open source products report grater than 20% savings in IT budget, InfoWorld [1] 1% companies report costs went up, InfoWorld [1]
  • 17. Myth: There is no support for open source Oracle, IBM, Sun, HP, Red Hat and many others will sell you support contracts Many smaller companies Anyone can get the source, anyone can provide support Limited support through project channels
  • 18. MYTH: Open source is not “commercial” Worldwide revenue $1.8bn in 2006 rising to $5.8bn in 2011 [5] IDC report Mozilla Foundation & Co-orporation: $76M revenue in 2007 MySQL sold for $1Bn ZenSource sold for $500M
  • 19. Contents Who are OSS Watch? What is Open Source? Why should you consider open source? For procurement For development State of Open Source in the UK HE and FE sector How to get help with open source
  • 20. National survey 2008 ICT Directors from 454 FE/FE+HE institutions 161 HE institutions 19% response rate
  • 21. Policy Vs. Practice Policy In 2006, 30% institutions mentioned open source In 2008, 57% Staff contributions regulated only in 14% Practice In 2006, 77% considered open source In 2008, 87% only 15% considered equally alongside closed source!
  • 22. The trend is more open source Server software: All or almost all closed source Down from 56% to 40% Half open and half closed source Planned to increase from 3% (present) to 11% (future) Similar trends seen on desktops
  • 23. Top Reasons for FE to reject OSS Servers: Lack of staff expertise and support Poor quality Desktops: Not what users want lack of staff expertise no solution for our needs lack of support
  • 24. Contents Who are OSS Watch? What is Open Source? Why should you consider open source? For procurement For development State of Open Source in the UK HE and FE sector How to get help with open source
  • 25. Conclusions and Help OSS Watch is here to help you [email_address] Open source starts with a licence, but works thanks to the community and development practices Small and big businesses... but are they reaching FE? Trend pro-open source: Quite clear: authority guidelines and market Milder: FE
  • 26. References [1] InfoWorld. Open Source Management: Trends, Requirements and Future Needs for the Open Source Enterprise. White paper. Downloaded 28 Oct 2008. http://www.infoworld.com/pdf/whitepaper/InfoWorld_Open_Source_Management.pdf 2] e-Government Unit, Cabinet Office. Open source software, Use within UK Government. Version 2. 28 Oct 2004. http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/documents/oss_policy_version2.pdf [3] S. Kallas. Answer given by Mr Kallas on behalf of the Commission. Parliamentary Questions. 17 Sep 2008. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getAllAnswers.
  • 27. References [4] JISC. Policy on open source software for JISC projects and services. Last revision 24 Jan 2005. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/about_opensourcepolicy.html [5] A.C. Picardi et al. Open Source in Global Software: Market Impact, Disruption, and Business Models. IDC report. Jul 2006. http://www.idc.com/research/viewtoc.jsp?containerId=202511 [6] Y.V. Natis et al. The State of Open Source, 2008. Gartner Report. Apr 2008. http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?id=638643 [7] I. Wladawsky-Berger, Head of IBM's e-Business on demand initiative. Keynote address at OSBC 2005. http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail495.html

Editor's Notes

  1. OSS Watch is the JISC funded Open Source Innovation Support Centre ( http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk ). We exist to assist in the realisation of the JISC open source policy ( http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/opensourcepolicy.aspx ). To that end we provide impartial advice and guidance on the adoption and creation of open source software in the Higher and Further Education sector. Our aim is to ensure all open source software activities within the sector are well managed and sustainable. In this short presentation I will introduce you to the basics of open source and to the services OSS Watch offers.