Ten years of open source concept
Ten years ago, a landmark event occurred for the entire software market and for the free software movement, in particular. February 9, 1998 was published a program document Open Source Definition ( rus. ), Which formulated the definition of open source software. The document consists of ten points, each of which is provided with a rationale.
Of course, the concept of open source software appeared much earlier than in 1998. Indeed, from the first days of the existence of programming as a type of activity, the programs were open and free, and the commercial software market emerged later. Legendary Richard Stallman has been promoting the concept of free software since the early 80s. However, the merit of Bruce Perence is that he opened the concept of Open Source for business and the consequences of this were very significant.
Summing up these ten years , Bruce Perens is proud to say that the popularity of open and free software has surpassed all expectations. Now it has become mainstream and actually takes leading positions in many thematic categories, especially on business servers and embedded systems. Unfortunately, to achieve the same success on desktops is not yet possible, if not to take into account the fact that most of the Apple MacOS and critical elements of Microsoft Windows are based on the open software.
Now we are witnessing the tendency of software transfer from desktops to the Network, where open software has strong positions, so this trend can only increase the popularity of Open Source.
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We also see that at open-source conferences, there are representatives of government agencies, where they are increasingly announcing various government programs related to Open Source. For example, it was recently announced that Linux was used in a large US defense project with a budget of $ 200 billion. No one thinks of apologizing to developers of commercial software for this.
Microsoft still remains a big problem as a bastion of old views on software and as a representative of the traditional school of dirty corporate struggles. Their current strategy, it seems, is to gloss over us with money, they recently concluded patent agreements with some developers of Linux distributions. These agreements are contrary to the spirit of free licenses and, probably, the idea was such that many independent programmers will now refuse to participate in these projects.
Many see a threat in Microsoft’s desire to buy Yahoo. But in fact, the implementation of the strategy “buy a loser” can undermine the financial welfare of Microsoft and suck her a lot of money.
Of course, the concept of open source software appeared much earlier than in 1998. Indeed, from the first days of the existence of programming as a type of activity, the programs were open and free, and the commercial software market emerged later. Legendary Richard Stallman has been promoting the concept of free software since the early 80s. However, the merit of Bruce Perence is that he opened the concept of Open Source for business and the consequences of this were very significant.
Summing up these ten years , Bruce Perens is proud to say that the popularity of open and free software has surpassed all expectations. Now it has become mainstream and actually takes leading positions in many thematic categories, especially on business servers and embedded systems. Unfortunately, to achieve the same success on desktops is not yet possible, if not to take into account the fact that most of the Apple MacOS and critical elements of Microsoft Windows are based on the open software.
Now we are witnessing the tendency of software transfer from desktops to the Network, where open software has strong positions, so this trend can only increase the popularity of Open Source.
')
We also see that at open-source conferences, there are representatives of government agencies, where they are increasingly announcing various government programs related to Open Source. For example, it was recently announced that Linux was used in a large US defense project with a budget of $ 200 billion. No one thinks of apologizing to developers of commercial software for this.
Microsoft still remains a big problem as a bastion of old views on software and as a representative of the traditional school of dirty corporate struggles. Their current strategy, it seems, is to gloss over us with money, they recently concluded patent agreements with some developers of Linux distributions. These agreements are contrary to the spirit of free licenses and, probably, the idea was such that many independent programmers will now refuse to participate in these projects.
Many see a threat in Microsoft’s desire to buy Yahoo. But in fact, the implementation of the strategy “buy a loser” can undermine the financial welfare of Microsoft and suck her a lot of money.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/20089/
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