If the term 'open source software' has connotations of hippie communes for you, think again. The Internet and World Wide Web were built on open source software and could not operate without it. Paul Kavanagh in Open Source Software-Implementation and Management, [Elsevier Digital Press, 2004] points out that the Apache Web server (which has a sixty-five per cent share of installed WWW servers), the C/C++ language (used to build programs found on almost every operating system), and-of course-Linux are all open source; Ford, Delta Airlines, DaimlerChrysler, Merrill Lynch, and Cisco are just some of the large corporations that have adopted open source; Amazon now uses Linux and open source software on many of its systems, and IBM has announced an intention to move its internal desktop machines to Linux. Google and eBay use open source.

Defining Open Source

The definition is frequently updated and the latest version is available at http://www.opensource.org. The following is a summary:
"Open source software . must be distributed with source code included or easily available, such as by free download from the Internet. The source code should be in the same form that a programmer would actually use to maintain it-not for instance, a generated, obfuscated, or intermediate code form. The licence . will not restrict others from distributing the code or modifications and derived works under the same terms. It will not discriminate against people or fields of endeavour." [Paul Kavanagh]

An authoritative commentary on the definition can be found in Andrew St. Laurent: Understanding Open Source & Free Software Licensing, O'Reilly, 2004

What Is 'Free'?

Open source software can be used freely, but is not necessarily free in the sense of not having to pay for it. A vendor may package software and charge for their work, the media, packaging, and delivery. Not all users are able to-or even want to-compile source code to produce an executable file for a particular operating system. Commercial providers who bring together an operating system and ready-to-run applications are entitled to charge for their effort and skill.

Distributions of Linux are an example; some are freely available and others have a price. Another example is StarOffice and OpenOffice.org: both use the same open source code. StarOffice comes with additional proprietary modules (extra filters), a manual, and is vendor-supported; OpenOffice is freely available and is often included on CDs that come with computer magazines; its support is (very effectively) community-based and documentation is contained in help files.

Open source can be redistributed

One of the advantages of open source software is that an individual or organisation can modify a program to suit specific needs and distribute it to, for example, clients. A reason for doing that might be to facilitate data exchange, access to data, or transactions. If you look at the licence documentation for OpenOffice you will see that such arrangements are permitted.

An example of the benefits of modify-and-distribute is that specific language versions of software can be developed and distributed. Open source enables "countries to create their own versions of software in their own language and culture" when it is uneconomic for a commercial vendor to do so.

Making the Best Choice

Business users should be prepared to assess what is best in the context of licence, support, functionality, ease of use, and documentation.

There are some who perceive themselves as purists and eschew any software that is not open source. For many users that is impracticable; there is no reason why open source and proprietary software should not co-exist. However, an issue raised in the literature should be considered by all business users: are you a pirate?

Accidental Piracy

There seems to be general agreement that in the order of forty per cent of software installed world-wide is not properly licensed. I suspect that is a conservative estimate and in many instances users are unaware of being in such a position.

A dealer or service provider may install software using fake licences, or there has been a genuine misunderstanding in respect of licence conditions. Some vendors are particularly litigious and extract severe penalties for what may have been an unwitting breach.

An example is cited by Paul Kavanagh. In 2000 Ernie Ball, guitar and guitar string manufacturer of California, was raided by armed U.S. marshalls who found six unlicensed copies of Microsoft Office. The fine and costs amounted to US$100,000. The fact was that the illegal software was never used, but resided on six old machines (out of the seventy-two owned by the business) that had "simply been handed down to engineering with the software still on them". Ernie was sufficiently miffed to migrate from Microsoft Windows to Red Hat Linux and OpenOffice, a move that he estimates is now saving his business from US$80-100,000 per annum.

The mere fact of donating a computer with proprietary software still installed could be software piracy, a situation more likely to occur-and be pursued-under the not-so-free FTA.

Two things emerge from that scenario: businesses should conduct an audit of their software to ensure there are valid licences, and-better still-switch to open source software to avoid the risk.

Resources

Two titles stand out as the nearest thing one can get to a 'definitive' text on open source software. One deals specifically with licensing issues, and the other with the implementation and management of open source software.

Understanding Open Source & Free Software Licensing

O'Reilly has made a number of significant contributions to computer literature, not the least of which is Understanding Open Source & Free Software Licensing. Apart from some specific, annotated licenses (that include:
Apache, GNU (GPL and LGPL), Mozilla Public Licence, Perl, Creative Commons; and Sun Community Source Licence) the book discusses licensing issues in the context of problems that have to be resolved by developers who want to release their software freely. Readers don't need to have any particular knowledge of law. The author does not engage in attempts to use entertaining language as a sweetener, but relies on plain language. It works well.

Written by "an experienced lawyer with a long-time interest in intellectual property, particularly software licensing", this is a lucid exposition of copyright, patent, and warranty issues. Apart from those with an immediate interest in copyright etc., it is an important text for anyone with a big-picture interest in open source software.
 

Implementation And Management Of Open Source Software

An exceptionally well written text, Open Source Software: Implementation and Management, is easy to read, contains much interesting background information, and discusses a number of issues that might be described as socio-political.

"The book is aimed, in a sense, at generalists"; the intended audience is described as "professional managers and implementers of information . [systems] who are not . experts in open source software, but who will . evaluate it and then, in many cases, adopt the technologies, tools, and practices for themselves and their teams".

A book that deserves a much wider audience than computer system managers, it should be read by politicians (and their minders) who consider themselves to be informed in respect of what they call 'information technology' (a term that is so amorphous as to be meaningless); by administrators in educational institutions; executives with a responsibility for-or interest in-communication systems, information systems, and knowledge management; teachers and students of computer science and business management; and anybody who wants to explore win2lin migration issues.

The content of Open Source Software is covered in a separate review; the purpose here is to point to its significance as a source of information about open source in general.