NI – Nursing Informatics

A Discussion on Revolution OS

Deadline: On or before the date of examsIndividualEmail them at istitched@gmail.com, with the following subject format:Subject: Schedule, Complete Name, NI Paper

Instructions:

- Based on the documentary create a paper that will discuss the following:

o The roots of open-source - where the open-source movement came from, and how that has influenced its development

o How open-source has been monetized - the key approaches that have been used in turning open-source software into a source of revenue

o Why it works - The difference between the proprietary and open-source models, and how open-source manages to be so successful

o The switch from 'free' to 'open-source' - how free software was adapted to make it palatable in the business sphere

o The phenomenal success of Linux - how Linux has gone from one man's pet project to a viable alternative to Windows solutions

o Others that followed in the Footsteps of Linux – discuss others (company, people, and organizations) that followed the OS revolution that Linux and the open-source movement started.

o Microsoft and its reaction to the growing revolution

o The future because of the revolution

o Your reaction to all of this

Format:

Short coupon bond Include a title page Include pictures, figures, graphs to help support your paper. Margin: 1” on all sides Font: tahoma Font Size: 12

Saint Louis UniversityBaguio City, BenguetSchool of Nursing

In partial fulfilment of the requirement needed in NURSING INFORMATICS Lecture

________________________________

REACTION PAPER(Revolution OS)

Submitted by:DONATO, Marklin Kay A.

BSN III-ASchedule: 5-6 pm MTW

Submitted to:Mr. John Kelvyn Lerma

NI Instructor

September 2010

“ The documentary Revolution OS explores the human side of the open

source and free software movements, illuminating the behind-the-scenes story of

the hackers and programmers rebelling against the corporate machine.

Story

This 90-minute film begins with Richard Stallman's quest to create a free

operating system. It then follows the movement through its two-decades-long

evolution in interviews with Stallman, Linus Torvalds (creator of the open-source

operating system Linux), Eric Raymond (author of The Cathedral and the Bazaar),

Bruce Perens (author of the Open Source Definition), Brian Behlendorf (leader of the

Apache Web server project), Michael Tiemann (founder of the first open source

company) and Larry Augustin (founder of VA Linux Systems). Revolution OS also

depicts the culture of the open source movement by documenting the Installfest

parties where people can bring their computers to get free, expert Linux tech

support; and the Refund Day protest marches, where Linux users demand

reimbursement of the extra fees that get tacked onto the purchase price of new

computers for pre-installed Microsoft applications.” (Hollywood.com)

CAST (major):

Linus Benedict Torvalds is a Finnish software engineer best known for having initiated the development of the Linux kernel and git revision control system. He later be-came the chief architect of the Linux kernel, and now acts as the project's coordinator.

Richard Stallman, an American software freedom ac-tivist and computer programmer. In September 1983, he launched the GNU Project to create a free Unix-like operating system, and has been the project's lead architect and organizer. With the launch of the GNU Project, he initiated the free soft-ware movement; in October 1985 he founded the Free Software Foundation.

Eric Steven Raymond often referred to as ESR, is a computer programmer, author and open source software advocate. After the 1997 publication of "The Cathedral and the Bazaar", Raymond be-came, for a number of years, an unofficial spokesman of the open source movement.

Michael Tiemann is Vice President of Open Source Affairs at Red Hat Inc, as well as President of the Open Source Initiative. He previously was the Chief Technical Officer of Red Hat. His programming con-tributions to free software include authorship of the GNU C++ compiler and work on the GNU C com-piler and the GNU Debugger.

Larry Augustin is CEO of SugarCRM and is a former venture capitalist and the co-founder and former chairman of VA Software, now known as Geeknet. He founded VA Research, the predecessor to that company, in 1993 while a Ph.D. student in electri-cal engineering at Stanford University. While at VA, he was one of the driving forces behind the creation of SourceForge, a popular collaborative software development management system.

Bruce Perens is a computer programmer and advocate in the open source community. He created the Open Source Definition and published the first formal announcement and manifesto of open source. He co-founded the Open Source Initiative with Eric S. Raymond.

THE ROOTS OF OPEN-SOURCE

(Where the open-source movement came from and how that has influenced its development)

According to the movie, Richard Stallman who is the founding father of the free software movement, created the legal, philosophical and technological foundation for the free software movement. Stallman relates his struggles with closed-source vendors at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab,

leading to his departure to focus on the development of free software, and the GNU project. While Microsoft's Windows became the most widely used operating system for personal computers in the world, many experts took issue with Microsoft's strict policies regarding licensing, ownership, distribution, and alteration of their software. The objections of many high-profile technology experts, most notably Richard Stallman, led to what has become known as "the Open Source Movement," which is centered on the belief that computer software should be free both in the economic and intellectual senses of the word.

Richard Stallman was troubled by the industry transition to proprietary software. Programmers were paid for their labor but could not control their code. Users could buy a copy of a program but couldn't change or distribute it. Without the source code, a program was a "black box." Complicated user licenses prohibited opening that box. (This is not always a bad thing.) Stallman wanted all users to have true ownership of their computer through free software. Such software is free as in "free speech" (liberty).

Stallman wanted to create and exclusively use free software. He founded a project to create a free, open source operating system. Stallman called his project GNU, a recursive acronym of GNU's Not UNIX. GNU would be fast, reliable, scalable, and interoperable with UNIX. Stallman founded the Free Software Foundation (FSF) to support GNU and similar projects. The Foundation became the center of the free software community.

By free, Stallman meant software that could be freely used, read, modified, and redistributed. The FSF successfully built a vast number of useful components, including a C compiler (gcc), an impressive text editor (emacs), and a host of fundamental tools. However, in the 1990's the FSF was having trouble developing the operating system kernel [FSF 1998]; without a kernel their dream of a completely free operating system would not be realized.

According to Bruce Perens (from the movie) he said: It actually began with the start of computer because at that time software was just passed around between people. And I think it was only like late 70’s or early 80’s that people really started closing up their software and they can never look at the source code and change this software even if it is necessary for you to fix it.

The Homebrew Computer Club's newsletter was one of the most influential forces in the formation of the culture of Sili-

con Valley. Created and edited by its members, it initiated the idea of the Personal Computer, and helped its members build the original kit computers, like the Altair. One such influential event was the publication of Bill Gates's Open Letter to Hobbyists, which lambasted the early hackers of the time for pirating commer-cial software programs.

HOW OPEN-SOURCE HAS BEEN MONETIZED(The key approaches that have been used in turning open-source software

into a source of revenue) Richard Stallman said in the movie: “ From the beginning of the free software movement, I have the idea that there’s room in it for business to be done. What are the advantages of free software is that there is a free market for any kind of service or support. So if you are using software in business and you want a good support, you have a choice if you want to go for it. With proprietary software, support is a monopoly…..”

Among the business models that have been used effectively since the inception of free software is that of offering consultancy and technical support for free and open-source software. The principle is a simple one - you get the software for nothing, and then pay an expert to maintain it,

hack it and adapt it to your specific needs.

WHY IT WORKS(The difference between the proprietary and open-source models, and how

open-source manages to be so successful)

The Cathedral and the Bazaar (abbreviated CatB) is an essay by Eric S. Raymond on software engineering methods, based on his observations of the Linux kernel development process and his experiences managing an open source project, fetchmail. It examines the struggle between top-down and bottom-up design. It was first presented by the author at the Linux Kongress on May 27, 1997 in Würzburg and was published as part of a book of the same name in 1999. (Wikipedia.com)

But if everything is working just fine with your proprietary software, why would you want to go and switch to the uncertain waters of open-source? In his extensive study  Eric S. Raymond compared and contrasted the two models and came up with a crucial metaphor that would have a great impact on the future of the open-source movement: the cathedral and the bazaar.

Eric S. Raymond said: “In my observation of what it was that made the free software/open source worked and why we were able to produced extremely high quality softwares in spite of constant we violating all of the standard rules of software. In that paper, I was setting up a contrast between two different styles of development. One which is the closed-conventional style (I called the cathedral style) and that one you have tight specification of objectives…..on the other hand in the Linux world, it appeared bazaar-like style and constant solicitation of feedbacks from people who are formally outside the project, the very intense peer review process….the startling thing the more I looked at this, the more it seemed that….for that one single advantage of massive independent people review actually seem to win and get good results.”

Raymond's book of the same name, originally published as a paper, was to have a huge impact on companies including the search giant  Netscape. Finding it increasingly difficult to compete with Microsoft's

free, but closed-source Internet Explorer browser the company took a bold move after reading Raymond's paper - THEY WENT OPEN-SOURCE. The result was  Mozilla, the foundation of the now ubiquitous  Firefox browser. In short, then, the reason that open-source manages to be as successful as it often is depends upon the hundreds of contributors feeding into a given piece of software's constant adaptation. This peer-to-peer model has been just as successfully applied to ventures including  wikipedia,  Bit Torrent and even  citizen journalism. In Raymond's so-called cathedral, a leader sets the goals, coerces programmers to participate, uses extrinsic rewards (e.g. money, promotions), and controls the product and its secrets. In the bazaar, a leader shares a vision, invites programmers, rewards their contributions with fame and gratitude, and shares the product as open source. Raymond emphasizes the fame reward, using the theory of gift/reputation culture to explain programmers' eagerness to work hard on code and then give it away.

THE SWITCH FROM 'FREE' TO 'OPEN-SOURCE'(How free software was adapted to make it palatable in the business sphere)

Free software can be a frightening prospect in both its name and its sometimes rather too idealistic (for some) pronouncements with regards to intellectual property. It isn't a phrase that screams out 'invest in me'.

This is how open-source came to pass, when those individuals interested in making a living from free software, while still exercising its fundamental principles, decided that something had to give.

Eric S. Raymond said: “ If you walk into an executive office and you say “free software”, if you’re lucky the response you’ll get “free software must be cheap, shanty, worthless……if you’re not lucky it has associations with free software foundation wholesale attack on intellectual property rights which regardless with what you think about the ethics of that is lousy marketing….”

Larry Augustin said: “so Eric Raymond knew that there was a problem with we’ve been calling it “free software” but people took the term “free” and associated with “free-of-charge”…..which is exactly the wrong concept. We wanted to get across to the idea that the software wasn’t open until the source code was avail.”

The term ``free software'' is often confused with programs whose executables are given away at no charge, but whose source code cannot be viewed, modified, or redistributed. Conversely, the term ``open source'' is sometime (ab)used to mean software whose source code is visible, but for which there are limitations on use, modification, or redistribution. This book uses the term ``open source'' for its usual meaning, that is, software which has its source code freely available for use, viewing, modification, and

redistribution; a more detailed definition is contained in the Open Source Definition. In some cases, a difference in motive is suggested; those preferring the term ``free software'' wish to strongly emphasize the need for freedom, while those using the term may have other motives (e.g., higher reliability) or simply wish to appear less strident.

THE PHENOMENAL SUCCESS OF LINUX (How Linux has gone from one man's pet project to a viable alternative to

Windows solutions)

The relative stability and adaptability of the Linux operating system has seen it grow exponentially year by year. While it doesn't enjoy a fraction of the market penetration of Windows operating system in the home, an increasing amount of servers use Linux solutions, and more and more governments, companies and public sector institutions are turning to Linux as a sustainable alternative to proprietary software as time goes by.

But nobody would have guessed how successful Linux could be in the marketplace until Larry Augustin took VA Linux public, breaking stock market records in the process.

Torvalds wanted a free operating system for his own use, so he created Linux using the Free Software Foundation's development tools. Torvalds didn't expect many people to be interested. But by combining the Linux kernel with GNU components, anyone could deploy a UNIX-like operating system. Although it would take years for Linux to mature, power users started deploying "GNU/Linux." Linux was and is a fantastic program. It's faster, more powerful, and scales larger than almost any other operating system. It's also complicated, challenging, and the graphical user interfaces are still maturing. Linux couldn't compete in the desktop market with Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh. So it started to spread everywhere else, and continues to spread today. Its success made Torvalds a celebrity. He was less radical in his rhetoric than Stallman. Linux succeeded as simply good code.

OTHERS THAT FOLLOWED IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF LINUX(Discuss others (company, people, and organizations) that followed the OS

revolution that Linux and the open-source movement started.)

1) Amazon.com

2) DaimlerChrysler

3) DreamWorks - animators use Linux desktops and movies are rendered on Linux servers

4) Flickr, an immensely popu-lar online photo-sharing Web site, operates exclusively on open source software

5) Ford Motor Company - Linux chosen without Microsoft® getting any se-rious consideration

6) Google - the leading internet search engine is powered by [Linux] and Python. "Google Inc open source programs manager Chris DiBona pointed out that if Google used Windows, or any other non-open source software program, to make changes to that system he would be re-quired to essentially ask permission from that vendor. 'Why should we hand over the control of our software support to another company?'" (Ascierto, Rhonda. "Unhappiness drives open source adoption" Com-puter Business Review Online 10 Aug 2005)

7) IBM

8) Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has called for broader adoption of open source in India and believes it's unfortunate that his country re-lies on proprietary software (May 2003, ZDNet)

9) Indiana Department of Education - schools in the state have added Linux workstations for 22,000 students under the Affordable Classroom Computers for Every Secondary Student (ACCESS) program

10) Industrial Light & Magic - Since 1996, "Python's unique mix of simplic-ity and power continues to be the best available choice for controlling ILM's complex and changing computing environment." (Industrial Light & Magic Runs on Python - Tim Fortenberry, Jan 17, 2003)

11)Los Alamos National Laboratory - among other Linux systems, a cluster called Lightning containing 2,816 processors on 1,408 nodes

12)Merrill Lynch13)Morgan Stanley14)Munich, Germany - 14,000 PCs migrating from Windows to Linux and

replacing Microsoft Office with OpenOffice15)NASA - uses Linux to make custom software programs for research and

development16)Oracle - All software is programmed on Linux17)RealNetworks18)Schools in Extremadura, Spain - 80,000 computers loaded with

GNOME, Linux and other open source software. The total cost savings exceeded 18 million euros (Gnome.org)

19)US Department of Defense - the first federal agency to sanction the use of open source and Linux

20)US Department of Energy - uses Linux to make custom software pro-grams for research and development

21)US National Security Agency - developed and released a security en-hanced version of Linux used in the public and private sector, even weapons systems used in Iraq

22)US Postal Service - Linux-based systems in 250 mail distribution cen-ters in its mail routing processes

23)TiVo, Inc. - 640,000 personal television recorders and back-end servers24)Verisign, Inc - 1,100 Linux servers25)"Petrochemical giant BP has purchased a large cluster of Hewlett-

Packard Linux servers using Intel's Itanium 2 processors to help search for oil and gas deposits. BP bought 259 HP rx5670 systems, each with four Itanium 2 processors. The systems collectively have more than 8,000GB of memory and can perform 4 trillion calculations per sec-ond." - April 22, 2003, CNet News.com

26)The Supercomputing Education and Research Centre of the Indian Insti-tute of Science has commissioned what is arguably the most powerful single-platform Linux computing facility in the country: an Altix 3000 system from Silicon Graphics Systems India (SGI).

27)Verizon28)Yahoo!

Microsoft and its business allies continue to disparage open source, creating a vivid conflict in marketing, the media, and mindshare.