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Box #4: Box #4 :example No.4: OPEN SOURCE (aka.'FREE')SOFTWARE
A FEW BY-PRODUCTS OF THE NETWORK
As everybody knows, computers are now a commodity and they cost less
and less everyday. €1000 is even more than enough to
buy a multimedia beast that is going to keep you happy for
a while. However, you will still need to install a few pieces
of software on that computer and that is going to cost you
quite a bit of money. Windows XP home edition alone is worth
€180 (OEM version) and is worth something like €600
for a standard localised version of Office XP. Note that
all that additional cash is only going to buy you the minimum
software required. If you want to buy it all, you will soon
have to spend as much as you have already spent on hardware.
If you think that this is a real problem, relax! I have
the right solution for you: we call it open source software.
Open source is software which is being developed by a community
of engineers, complying with self implicated standards and
rules and agree to share the source of their code with the
community. The end-result is free software (unless you decide
to contribute on a voluntary basis), with the only cost
being that of a 60MB download for the open source Open Office
office suite for instance.
The principle may appear a little strange to outsiders. Talented young
people work day in day out until their software matches
up to proprietary software.More than often, the end-result
is really amazing. The free software movement (note that
it is free as in the speech and not as in free of charge)
is directly inherited from the liberal movement that gave
the Web its popularity. The free software foundation (FST)
was created by Richard Stallman in 1984 as a means to react
against the increase in prices of software licences. The
aim of the FST was to get back to the good old days of the
1970's when software programmers could exchange their code
with no constraints.Open source software means that any
'client' is free to copy, package, de and re-package and
even distribute that piece of software. This is why you
can find so many versions (rightfully called 'LINUX distributions'
) of LINUX, in fact one version (or distribution) for each
group of software enthusiasts and/or companies who decide
to build upon its 'kernel'. Because it is based on converging
interests, the open source community is really successful
despite what sceptics may say; definitely the world is not
always ruled by money, free software is here to prove it.
A community of enthusiasts is a group of people who share
information and help each other. Their motives have nothing
to do with greed; although they don't really know each other
per se, the fact that they are part of an online community
creates some sort of solidarity between them.
The way that such people work defies logic - at least seemingly. Whoever
ever designed a piece of software in his or her life knows
how complex that work is. Software programmes are a lot
like living organisms. Besides, making people work together
can often turn into a nightmare: users, designers, architects,
programmers, etc. all have different perspectives and getting
them to agree to something and work according to plan is
not a piece of cake. When it comes to open source, there
is no apparent logic or project structure, no ruling organisation
or control and yet, there are quite a few real-life examples
of success in that area: first and foremost, unknown to
must users, APACHE, by far the web's most popular web server,
which has now become a standard.
It is free software, in all senses of the term. For a few years, Microsoft
has tried to impose its own web server - sometimes with
success - to the Internet community (code name ISS), namely
at the time universally known as the Internet bubble. However,
in the long run, Apache imposed itself as the industry standard,
mainly because of its legendary and proven robustness. However
unlikely, the apparent anarchy or chaos governing the development
of free software proved more successful than Microsoft's
know-how with regards to application development.
Apache often comes hand in hand with the MYSQL database software and
the PERL and PHP languages (aimed at building dynamic web
pages) in order to produce probably the most reliable Internet
server suite.Between 2000 and 2002, I was able to test and
compare the reliability of both servers which ran a similar
service (one under NT, and the other under LINUX with Apache,
PERL and PHP). Over a period of two years, we only had to
reboot the Linux server once. The NT server had to be restarted
at least once a week. There are more good practices which
would mean more to end-users: Open Office for instance,
is a free office suite, which can be downloaded from the
http://openoffice.org
website. Its look and feel - even after the major 2.0 overhaul
- is still not up to scratch with the original but it is
both reliable and compatible. Besides, because free software
is not about making profits, some of these programmes can
be localised in a number of languages which would appear
exotic to most of us, but are nonetheless irreplaceable
if one wants to foster software development in emerging
countries. Free software is not just great software, it
also takes the human factor into account
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