Introduction to Free Software, February 2008
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Free Software Jesús M. González-Barahona Joaquín Seoane Pascual Gregorio Robles PID_00148386 GNUFDL • PID_00148386 Free Software Copyright © 2010, FUOC. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License" GNUFDL • PID_00148386 Free Software Index 1. Introduction........................................................................................ 9 1.1. The concept of software freedom.................................................. 9 1.1.1. Definition ....................................................................... 10 1.1.2. Related terms ................................................................. 11 1.2. Motivations ................................................................................. 12 1.3. The consequences of the freedom of software ........................... 12 1.3.1. For the end user ............................................................ 13 1.3.2. For the public administration ....................................... 14 1.3.3. For the developer ........................................................... 14 1.3.4. For the integrator .......................................................... 15 1.3.5. For service and maintenance providers ......................... 15 1.4. Summary ..................................................................................... 15 2. A bit of history................................................................................... 16 2.1. Free software before free software .............................................. 16 2.1.1. And in the beginning it was free .................................. 17 2.1.2. The 70s and early 80s ................................................... 18 2.1.3. The early development of Unix .................................... 19 2.2. The beginning: BSD, GNU .......................................................... 20 2.2.1. Richard Stallman, GNU, FSF: the free software movement is born ......................................................... 20 2.2.2. Berkeley's CSRG ............................................................. 21 2.2.3. The beginnings of the Internet ..................................... 23 2.2.4. Other projects ................................................................ 25 2.3. Everything in its way .................................................................. 25 2.3.1. The quest for a kernel ................................................... 25 2.3.2. The *BSD family ............................................................ 26 2.3.3. GNU/Linux comes onstage ........................................... 26 2.4. A time of maturation .................................................................. 27 2.4.1. End of the nineties ........................................................ 28 2.4.2. Decade of 2000 .............................................................. 31 2.5. The future: an obstacle course? .................................................. 38 2.6. Summary ..................................................................................... 39 3. Legal aspects ...................................................................................... 40 3.1. Brief introduction to intellectual property ................................. 40 3.1.1. Copyright ....................................................................... 41 3.1.2. Trade secret .................................................................... 43 3.1.3. Patents and utility models ............................................ 43 3.1.4. Registered trademarks and logos ................................... 45 3.2. Free software licences .................................................................. 45 3.2.1. Types of licences ............................................................ 46 GNUFDL • PID_00148386 Free Software 3.2.2. Permissive licences ......................................................... 47 3.2.3. Strong licences ............................................................... 50 3.2.4. Distribution under several licences ............................... 54 3.2.5. Program documentation ................................................ 54 3.3. Summary ..................................................................................... 56 4. Developers and their motivations................................................. 57 4.1. Introduction ................................................................................ 57 4.2. Who are developers? ................................................................... 57 4.3. What do developers do? ............................................................. 58 4.4. Geographical distribution ........................................................... 59 4.5. Dedication ................................................................................... 61 4.6. Motivations ................................................................................. 62 4.7. Leadership ................................................................................... 63 4.8. Summary and conclusions .......................................................... 65 5. Economy................................................................................................ 66 5.1. Funding free software projects .................................................... 66 5.1.1. Public funding ............................................................... 66 5.1.2. Private not-for-profit funding ....................................... 68 5.1.3. Financing by someone requiring improvements .......... 69 5.1.4. Funding with related benefits ....................................... 69 5.1.5. Financing as an internal investment ............................ 70 5.1.6. Other financing modes ................................................. 71 5.2. Business models based on free software ..................................... 73 5.2.1. Better knowledge ........................................................... 74 5.2.2. Better knowledge with limitations ................................ 75 5.2.3. Source of a free software product .................................. 76 5.2.4. Product source with limitations .................................... 77 5.2.5. Special licences .............................................................. 78 5.2.6. Brand sale ...................................................................... 79 5.3. Other business model classifications .......................................... 79 5.3.1. Hecker classification ...................................................... 79 5.4. Impact on monopoly situations ................................................. 80 5.4.1. Elements that favour dominant products ..................... 81 5.4.2. The world of proprietary software ................................. 82 5.4.3. The situation with free software ................................... 82 5.4.4. Strategies for becoming a monopoly with free software .......................................................................... 83 6. Free software and public administrations ................................ 85 6.1. Impact on the public administrations ........................................ 85 6.1.1. Advantages and positive implications ........................... 86 6.1.2. Difficulties of adoption and other problems ................. 89 6.2. Actions of the public administrations in the world of free software ....................................................................................... 91 GNUFDL • PID_00148386 Free Software 6.2.1. How to satisfy the needs of the public administrations? ............................................................ 91 6.2.2. Promotion of the information society .......................... 93 6.2.3. Research promotion ....................................................... 94 6.3. Examples of legislative initiatives ............................................... 95 6.3.1. Draft laws in France ...................................................... 95 6.3.2. Draft law of Brazil ......................................................... 96 6.3.3. Draft laws in Peru .......................................................... 97 6.3.4. Draft laws in Spain ........................................................ 98 7. Free software engineering .............................................................. 100 7.1. Introduction ................................................................................ 100 7.2. The cathedral and the bazaar ..................................................... 100 7.3. Leadership and decision-making in the bazaar .......................... 102 7.4. Free software processes ............................................................... 104 7.5. Criticism of ''The cathedral and the bazaar'' .............................. 105 7.6. Quantitative studies .................................................................... 106 7.7. Future work ................................................................................. 109 7.8. Summary ..................................................................................... 110 8. Development environments and technologies........................... 111 8.1. Description of environments, tools and systems ....................... 111 8.2. Associated