OPENSOURCES Voices from the Open Source Revolution Michael Tiemann Future of Cygnus Solutions: an Entrepreneur’S Account
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Eric S. Raymond A Brief History of Hackerdom Marshall Kirk McKusick Twenty Years of Berkeley Unix: From AT&T-Owned to Freely Redistributable Scott Bradner The Internet Engineering Task Force Richard Stallman The GNU Operating System and the Free Software Movement OPENSOURCES Voices from the Open Source Revolution Michael Tiemann Future of Cygnus Solutions: An Entrepreneur’s Account Paul Vixie Software Engineering Linus Torvalds The Linux Edge Robert Young Giving It Away: How Red Hat Software Stumbled Across a New Economic Model and Helped Improve an Industry Larry Wall Diligence, Patience, and Humility Bruce Perens The Open Source Definition Tim O'Reilly Hardware, Software, and Infoware Jim Hamerly and Tom Paquin with Susan Walton Freeing the Source: The Story of Mozilla Eric S. Raymond Edited by The Revenge of the Hackers Chris DiBona, Sam Ockman and Mark Stone OPENSOURCES Voices from the Open Source Revolution Edited by Chris DiBona, Sam Ockman and Mark Stone Copyright “Free Software” is Copyright c ; 1998 Richard M. Stallman Verbatim copying and duplication is permitted in any medium provided this notice is preserved. “A Brief History of Hackerdom” and “Revenge of the Hackers” are Copyright c ; 1998 Eric S. Raymond. These essays are free; you can redistribute them and/or modify them under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. These essays are distributed in the hope that they will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. See Appendix B for a copy of the GNU General Public License, or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330 Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. Eric Raymond [email protected] 6 Karen Drive Malvern, PA 19355 “Open Source Software” is free; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This essay is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. See Appendix B for a copy of the GNU General Public License, or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. Bruce Perens [email protected] c/o Pixar Animation Studios 1001 West Cutting #200 Richmond, CA 94804 All essays not mentioned above are freely redistributable without modification provided this notice is preserved. All other material is copyright c 1999 O’Reilly & Associates. All rights reserved. Acknowledgments No book like this happens without the help and counsel of a num- I’d like to thank Sam and Chris for bringing this crazy idea to ber of people, so I thank my Mom, Dad, Trish, Denise, Neil, and me in the first place. I’m sure they had no idea what they were Mickey. I’d also like to thank the folks at the Coffeenet, who getting into, but I’m equally sure it has been worth it. I’d also have been there for me. And of course my thanks to the contribu- like to thank each of the contributors; each is a creative spirit tors who have wasted valuable coding time to work on this book; with more ideas than time to execute them, but each understood I appreciate it! the importance of this project and the need to make time for it. To the people at VA Research Linux Systems, I couldn’t have For every book there are people behind the scenes who work hoped for a better collection of smart, dedicated people; thanks their magic to make the book a success. On this book especially, for putting up with me during the writing of this book. some of these quiet heroes deserve acknowledgment: Troy Mott, This book would not have happened without the continual sup- Katie Gardner, Tara McGoldrick, Jane Ellin, Robert Romano, port and dedication of Mark Stone. He is the true hero behind Rhon Porter, Nancy Wolfe Kotary, Sheryl Avruch, Mike Sierra, this book’s creation. He has said that “A book could be written and Edie Freeman. Of course I’d also like to thank my friends about how this book was written,” which I’m sure he means in and family who have supported me through yet another of Dad’s the nicest way possible. I’m sure one day he will look back and crazy book projects. Finally, my thanks to the good people at laugh at this time — right, Mark? Mark? Lytton Coffee Roasting Company, my “office away from home.” In the initial brainstorming period for the book, a number of Mark Stone people contributed ideas and support that eventually led to Open Sources. These people include Paul Crowley, Paul Russell, Corey Saltiel, Edward Avis, Jeff Licquia, Jeff Knox, Becky Wood, and the guy whose site (http://slashdot.org) acted as the cat- alyst, Rob Malda. Thanks to all; I hope this book is everything you had wished it to be. Finally, I could not have completed this work without the morale of Christine Hillmer, who selflessly unpacked our apart- ment while I toiled away at my keyboard. You are all that I ever could have wished for and I am reminded each day how lucky I am. Chris DiBona I’d like to thank the following people for the many ways that they have supported me: Joe McGuckin, Peter Hendrickson, Jo Schuster, Ruth Ockman, Allison Huynh, and Nina Woodard. I’d also like to thank my favorite hackers: David S. Miller and H. Peter Anvin. Sam Ockman Contents Acknowledgments 4 The Internet Engineering Task Force 28 Scott Bradner 1 Introduction 8 4.1 The History of the IETF . 28 Chris DiBona, Sam Ockman, and Mark Stone 4.2 IETF Structure and Features . 28 1.1 What Is Free Software and How Does It Relate 4.3 IETF Working Groups . 29 to Open Source? . 8 4.4 IETF Documents . 29 1.2 What Is Open Source Software? . 9 4.5 The IETF Process . 29 1.3 The Dark Side of the Force . 9 4.6 Open Standards, Open Documents, and Open 1.4 Use the Source, Luke . 9 Source . 30 1.5 Innovation Through the Scientific Method . 10 1.6 Perils to Open Source . 12 5 The GNU Operating System and the Free Software 1.7 Motivating the Open Source Hacker . 13 Movement 31 1.8 The Venture and Investment Future of Linux . 13 Richard Stallman 5.1 The First Software-Sharing Community . 31 1.9 Science and the New Renaissance . 14 5.2 The Collapse of the Community . 31 2 A Brief History of Hackerdom 16 5.3 A Stark Moral Choice . 32 Eric S. Raymond 5.4 Free as in Freedom . 32 2.1 Prologue: The Real Programmers . 16 5.5 GNU Software and the GNU System . 32 5.6 Commencing the Project . 32 2.2 The Early Hackers . 16 5.7 The First Steps . 33 2.3 The Rise of Unix . 17 5.8 GNU Emacs . 33 2.4 The End of Elder Days . 18 5.9 Is a Program Free for Every User? . 33 2.5 The Proprietary Unix Era . 18 5.10 Copyleft and the GNU GPL . 33 2.6 The Early Free Unixes . 19 5.11 The Free Software Foundation . 34 2.7 The Great Web Explosion . 20 5.12 Free Software Support . 34 5.13 Technical Goals . 34 3 Twenty Years of Berkeley Unix 21 5.14 Donated Computers . 34 Marshall Kirk McKusick 5.15 The GNU Task List . 34 3.1 Early History . 21 5.16 The GNU Library GPL . 35 3.2 Early Distributions . 22 5.17 Scratching an Itch? . 35 3.3 VAX Unix . 22 5.18 Unexpected Developments . 35 3.4 DARPA Support . 22 5.19 The GNU HURD . 35 3.5 4.2BSD . 23 5.20 Alix . 35 3.6 4.3BSD . 24 5.21 Linux and GNU/Linux . 36 3.7 Networking, Release 1 . 25 5.22 Challenges in Our Future . 36 3.8 4.3BSD-Reno . 25 5.23 Secret Hardware . 36 3.9 Networking, Release 2 . 25 5.24 Non-Free Libraries . 36 3.10 The Lawsuit . 26 5.25 Software Patents . 36 3.11 4.4BSD . 27 5.26 Free Documentation . 37 3.12 4.4BSD-Lite, Release 2 . 27 5.27 We Must Talk About Freedom . 37 6 7 5.28 “Open Source” . 37 12 The Open Source Definition 79 5.29 Try! . 37 Bruce Perens 12.1 History . 79 6 Future of Cygnus Solutions 39 12.2 KDE, Qt, and Troll Tech . 80 Michael Tiemann 12.3 Analysis of the Open Source Definition . 81 6.1 Introduction . 39 12.4 Analysis of Licenses and Their Open Source 6.2 Cygnus in the Early Years . 42 Compliance . 83 6.3 GNUPro . 42 12.5 Choosing a License . 85 6.4 Challenges . 44 12.6 The Future . 85 6.5 Getting Funded Beyond Open Source — eCos . 45 13 Hardware, Software, and Infoware 87 6.6 Reflections and Vision of the Future . 46 Tim O’Reilly 7 Software Engineering 47 14 Freeing the Source 91 Paul Vixie Jim Hamerly and Tom Paquin with Susan Walton 7.1 The Software Engineering Process . 47 14.1 Making It Happen . 92 7.2 Testing Details .