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Open your eyes to open source

Article date: 06/21/06

Introduction

I have been pondering for a wile about why open source has not yet won the hearts and minds of the masses, and have come to some conclusions. It's hard to be objective in a matter such as this but I will try as hard as I possibly can. This article is an illustration of why the world is still dumbfounded with regards to software.

The ideas behind open source

Open source is very straightforward, and I feel that many people try to complexify it's role in society as well as how it works and why. Open source exists because of curiosity. Often as a programmer, you ask yourself things like”man this is brilliant, wish i could see the code”, or “this is such a stupid bug let me fix it”.Open source has it's core at enthusiasm, learning, and creating a better world. Here is a quite from the FileZilla documentation(You can get the program here)

"But there's another reason for the success of FileZilla. One may ask: "Why is he making FileZilla? He gains nothing from it!" Looking at the financial aspect, this is true, but if you look closer, you'll see what I gain. First of all, it's experience, which I share with other people through the open source code. In addition, a lot of people now know me. It is users like you who email me their ideas and problems with FileZilla. It is the feedback, positive as well as - to a much lesser extent - negative, which is vital for FileZilla and me. It tells me that there is popular interest in my project, gives me ideas for improving it, and keeps me busy!"

Why the war?

Why does Microsoft slander open source? Why don't hardware vendors make drivers for open source operating systems? Why aren't everyone switching to open source?

The answers are simpler than you might think. We as people living in a capitalist world have been indoctrinated from childhood to evaluate things by price. “This is cheap, it can't be good”.If something is given away for free we often jump to the occasion, but behind the scenes a little voice is telling us that this thing won't replace that expensive thing.

When software was first sold, creating software took a great deal of time and effort, and software usually accompanied hardware too. Somewhere along the way people didn't stop to ask, “am i being ripped off?”. This , in my opinion caused the Information Technology boom of the nineties. Microsoft was cashing in on every poor dilbert around the globe who needed a PC, and everyone immediately thought that this was the way to make money. The dot bomb incident where many internet companies went bank proved this assumption very wrong. Stocks were trading at ridiculous prices, and buyers were so consumed by hype, they thought “How could it fail?”. Well it did, because those companies were really empty, and provided no real products or services. People were interested in the new fad of online business, and when the wave finally rolled back, these pimple companies were left in ruins.

How does this relate to software you ask?

Well, software has the exact same problem. There are a few differences though. Most people were forced to buy a windows PC to stay compatible with the majority, and everyone just fell in line to get one, no matter the price. Soon Microsoft was on top of the food chain. Once a small company that sold Basic compilers now became the biggest company in the world. How did they do it? With one program.They did not individually type out every copy of windows, no. They copied it verbatim and distributed it, often on OEMs that were even cheaper and more effective at spreading the Operating system. It would be the same if you took a picture on your digital camera, posted on a free web server, and charged people one dollar to view it. You'd cover your costs in about 3-4 views of the image .Unethical? YES. People can't see through the haze of capitalism. If you go to the store and steal a Soda, it costs money to make another one, distribute it, and keep it cool. If you download a pirate version of software, who loses?

Give the pirates a break

Why don't software pirates feel guilty. Because most pirates pirate things that aren't absolutely necessary. If someone pirated dreamweaver for instance, they would probably use it for a non profit reason, thus they are contributing to society, yet it is still a crime. If someone pirates software and praises it openly, it is free marketing. People talk about software if it's good, trust me!

If an operating system is pirated, its standards and drivers become more popular and therefore support for it increases.Open source thrives from these things, not seeing it as a crime, but rather the status quo

The GPL is flawed

Here is what I read, when i read the GPL:

• you may use this software and copy it
• you may modify the code, but you gotta give credit where it is due
• You may not use this code in a program that is not licensed GPL (FLAW!!!)
• You've got to give source code with your applications

The GPL discourages binary releases, and therefore if one api changes, many applications just simple fall over and die, because they are dynamically linked to an older version of that library.

The BSD license

Do what you want, just don't sue the developers or use them to promote your product.

Ahhh. Much better, now if someone develops a standard everyone can copy from them, including proprietary software companies. They in turn use these great standards, thus cutting their own throats. Microsoft realized this about HTML and JavaScript, and tried to put a band aid on it. It doesn't work. Open standards are open to open discussion, debate and decision, and therefore tend to work out a whole lot better then proprietary standards. Don't believe me? Look at some examples

Open	Proprietary
TCP/IP	Apple talk
XML	?
HTML	?
C++	C#
POP	?
SMTP	?
Apache/HTTP	?
Sendmail	?
	If you know about any protocols or applications that aren't here, please email me!

Most people are gaining firm insolence for software vendors, especially the third world school of computing. If you translate first world software prices, they get pretty damn ridiculous.”like I'm going to pay R3000 rand for a box, a book , and a DVD, pffft.

Don't get me wrong, I am not bashing Microsoft, I am bashing their management and marketing style. They openly slander open source solutions, whilst trying to promote their server software. Bill gates has called open source a disease. Why are they so scared?

Why open source can prevail

open source is a real threat to people who are ripping off the masses with ridiculous software prices. But proprietary software isn't all bad. Companies like ID, have released sources to old software, and they are still making money. Other companies should follow suite, giving something away for free is a good way of attracting people to other more expensive stuff.

It starts with the operating system

As soon as open source operating systems can be user firendly(possibly mimicking windows to the tee), support vendor drivers, and proprietary software, people will need it, and this will trigger the necesary change. It doesnt really matter whether or not it is unjust to sell software, what matters is that there is no alternative