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T O Ro N to Pu B Lic L Ib Rary Open Source Software ` Open Source Software Toronto Public Library Public Toronto Participant’s Package Original work by Toronto Public Library. The support of the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Citizenship, Culture and Recreation and of the Government of Canada through Industry Canada is acknowledged. September 2012 www.torontopubliclibrary.ca http://vrl.torontopubliclibrary.ca Open Source Software Outline I What Is Open Source Software • Is It Safe? • History of Open Source • Advantages to Open Source II Software Licenses & Major Contributors • Open Source vs. Freeware vs. Shareware • Google & Android • Linux III Examples of Open Source: Basic Computer Use • Operating Systems • Web Browsers • Virus Protection • Computer Maintenance IV Examples of Open Source: General Tasks • Compression • PDF Conversion V Examples of Open Source: Desktop Publishing • Email • Word and Office Suites • Desktop Publishing • Personal and Business Finance VI Getting Creative in an Open Source Environment • Photo Editing • Drawing and Illustration • Video Playback and Conversion • Audio Playback and Conversion • Video Editing • Audio Editing • 3D Animation VII Open Source Software Glossary • Glossary VIII Open Source Software Useful Links • Links to Resourceful Websites Page 2 I. What Is Open Source Software Open Source refers to a program in which the source code is available to the general public for use and/or modification from its original design free of charge, i.e., open. Open source code is typically created as a collaborative effort in which programmers improve upon the code and share the changes within the community. Open source sprouted in the technological community as a response to proprietary software owned by corporations. Open Source software is built on Trust, Teamwork and Transparency just as great teaching is. Open Source software is the perfect fit for education. It reflects some of the best practices out there. What is it? Open Source software is free as in freedom (libre) and free as in $0. Rationale for this movement is that a larger group of programmers not concerned with proprietary ownership or financial gain will produce a more useful and bug-free product for everyone to use. The concept relies on peer review to find and eliminate bugs in the program code, a process which commercially developed and packaged programs do not utilize. Programmers on the Internet read, redistribute and modify the source code, forcing an expedient evolution of the product. The process of eliminating bugs and improving the software happens at a much quicker rate than through the traditional development channels of commercial software as the information is shared throughout the open source community and does not originate and channel through a corporation's research and development cogs. Is Open Source Safe? Is Open Source more of a risk to my computer then other computer programs? No. If anything, open-source software has the potential to be safer. Not that it always is, of course. An open-source program is one whose source code is open to anyone who wishes to study it-- or improve upon it. Open-source software is usually free and often public domain. Popular open-source programs include Linux, OpenOffice, GIMP, InkScape and a program you're quite likely use every day to check the internet: Mozilla Firefox. When everyone has access to the source code, a great many experts are able to examine that code thoroughly and determine if it really is secure. That's prohibitively expensive if the only people with access to the code are on the payroll. And it's not as if closed-source programs are especially secure. People have always found holes throughout Windows since its conception. Back in 1999, security expert Bruce Schneier wrote that "Public security is always more secure than proprietary security...For us, open source isn't just a business model; it's smart engineering practice.” (From Lincoln Spector, PC World) Page 3 History of Open Source The concept of free sharing of technological information existed long before computers. For example, cooking recipes have been shared since the beginning of human culture. In the early years of automobile development, a group of capital monopolists owned the rights to a 2-cycle gasoline engine patent originally filed by George B. Selden. By controlling this patent, they were able to monopolize the industry and force car manufacturers to adhere to their demands, or risk a lawsuit. In 1911, independent automaker Henry Ford won a challenge to the Selden patent. The result was that the Selden patent became virtually worthless and a new association (which would eventually become the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association) was formed. The new association instituted a cross-licensing agreement among all US auto manufacturers: although each company would develop technology and file patents, these patents were shared openly and without the exchange of money between all the manufacturers. By the time the US entered World War 2, 92 Ford patents and 515 patents from other companies were being shared between these manufacturers, without any exchange of money (or lawsuits). A collaborative process of the 1960s led to the birth of the Internet in 1969. Early instances of the free sharing of source code include IBM's source releases of its operating systems and other programs in the 1950s and 1960s, and the SHARE user group that formed to facilitate the exchange of software. In a foreshadowing of the Internet, software with source code included became available on networks in the 1980s. Example of boards specifically to discuss modification grew at length. A culture of "modding” software and distributing the mods, grew up so extensively. The sharing of source code on the Internet began when the Internet was relatively primitive. Linux became the archetype for organized software development orientated around the sharing of source code. The label "open source" was adopted by a group of people in the free software movement at a strategy session held in 1998. This group of individuals at the session were the pioneers that came up with the suggested title "open source". Over the next set of weeks they spread the word. Those people who adopted the term used the opportunity before the release of Navigator's source code to free themselves of the ideological and confrontational connotations of the term "free software". Netscape released its source code under the Netscape Public License and later under the Mozilla Public License. In February 1998, the Open Source Initiative was formed. The term was given a big boost at an event organized in April 1998 by technology publisher Tim O'Reilly. Originally titled the "Freeware Summit" and later known as the "Open Source Summit". The event brought together the leaders of many of the most important free and open-source project. At that meeting, the confusion caused by the name free software was brought up. Starting in the early 2000s, a number of companies began to publish a portion of their source code to claim they were open source, while keeping key parts closed. This led to the development of the now widely used terms free open-source software and commercial open- source software to distinguish between truly open and hybrid forms of open source. Page 4 Advantages to Open Source Many people like Open Source for many reasons, here is an overview of some of the more important reasons. Security: Open Source Software suffers from fewer security vulnerabilities than Microsoft products. For example, the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team has recommended using web browsers other than Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and many people are switching over to the Open Source Firefox web browser for a more secure solution. Fixed in a considerably shorter amount of time. Updates are released immediately, not on a monthly schedule, and clock in at fewer than 10 MB. Users are notified automatically and prompted to install the update with a single click. The update process doesn’t take more than a minute on a modern computer. Anyone can contribute and analyze the code making it more secure and constantly increasing the quality. Features: Open Source programs are often programmed by people who use them, they tend to have much more advanced features that some companies haven’t thought of; or are holding back for future releases. Advanced Searching & Customization Capabilities More up to date filters, effects and graphic tools Increased Security Some companies don’t release the latest tools to their paying customers and repackage the software to sell a new version to them that is 95% the same. It doesn’t make sense! Cost: Open Source Software is FREE! Anyone can install a Linux operating system with Open Office and you will be able to go online, create documents, spreadsheets and more. Edit Manipulate and Fix Photos; Edit Audio and Video; Create Software, Games and more. A report by the Standish Group states that adoption of open-source software models has resulted in savings of about $60 billion per year for consumers. Community: In the Open Source community, anyone can take the freely available source code, modify it to suit their needs, and release it back into the community. Forums allow users the opportunity discuss issues PDF instruction manuals / templates Online video tutorials and additional resources are widely made available. At the heart of open source is one thing: Public Collaboration. Your open source community will build, improve, tear down, rewrite, document, criticize, test, stretch, redefine, and give your software legs and a life that exists way beyond the original authors or any one person. Because of that, your community is your software’s best feature. Page 5 II. Software Licenses & Major Contributers Open Source vs. Freeware vs. Shareware What are the differences between three models of "free" software, and why does it matter? With all the excitement, many people are actually confusing open source software with two other models of "free" software--with potentially serious consequences.
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