Free Software and Proprietary Software A History of Free Software The FOSS development model FOSS business model Conclusion Free Software Free as in freedom Josep M. Rib´o Universitat de Lleida January 22, 2009 Josep M. Rib´o Free Software Free Software and Proprietary Software A History of Free Software The FOSS development model FOSS business model Conclusion Outline 1 Free Software and Proprietary Software 2 A History of Free Software The first years 1980s: The begining of the Free Software Movement 1990s: Linux 2000s: The present of FOSS 3 The FOSS development model The Bazaar Infrastructure for FOSS projects 4 FOSS business model A collection of FOSS business models Community projects vs. corporate projects 5 Conclusion Josep M. Rib´o Free Software Free Software and Proprietary Software A History of Free Software The FOSS development model FOSS business model Conclusion You buy a brand new car..... Congratulations!!!! But unfortunatelly, its hood is locked and the seller has not given you the key :-( If you want to fix some add-ons or if the car breaks down you have to pay a visit to the Official Service (the only ones who have the key of the hood) ... and what will happen? Josep M. Rib´o Free Software Free Software and Proprietary Software A History of Free Software The FOSS development model FOSS business model Conclusion The official service The price is guaranteed to be excessive There is no competition (monopoly) It hinders the development of a network of local garage workshops It prevents you from fixing it yourself (provided you have mechanics knowledge) In a few years there will not be any maintenance for that car forcing you to buy a new one Would you buy a product like this? Well.... you probably have.... Take a look at the software that runs on your computer Josep M. Rib´o Free Software Free Software and Proprietary Software A History of Free Software The FOSS development model FOSS business model Conclusion What Free Software is Free Software definition It is software that comes packaged with several freedoms: Freedom to run it without any restriction Freedom to see its source code and to study it Freedom (and also encouragement) to redistribute it Freedom to modify it and to redistribute the modifications Josep M. Rib´o Free Software Free Software and Proprietary Software A History of Free Software The FOSS development model FOSS business model Conclusion What Free Software is not Free software is not: Inexpensive software In english Free = (1) Freedom (2) Free of charge Free software refers to free as in freedom not as in free of charge Freeware: Software which is distributed free of charge It is distributed only in binary format It may have restrictions to redistribute it Example: Microsoft Internet Explorer Josep M. Rib´o Free Software Free Software and Proprietary Software A History of Free Software The FOSS development model FOSS business model Conclusion What free software is not Shareware: Commercial software that is (usually) distributed free of charge for trial purposes before purchasing the software license It is distributed only in binary format And with limitations (it is not the full version or it only works for a limited period) Careware: Software that is obtained usually for a fee, which is donated to some charity This type of software can be free software (e.g. vim) Josep M. Rib´o Free Software Free Software and Proprietary Software A History of Free Software The FOSS development model FOSS business model Conclusion What free software is not And, obviously, free software is not... Proprietary software: Software that is legally owned by a specific party, which regulates the particular terms of access, use and distribution by means of a usually restrictive license Proprietary software usually has the opposite features to free software: Restrictions to use it Impossibility to study it (binary format) Prohibition to redistribute it Prohibition/Impossibility to modify it Josep M. Rib´o Free Software Free Software and Proprietary Software A History of Free Software The FOSS development model FOSS business model Conclusion Creative commons and copyleft It is not software all that glitters... Copyleft refers to a family of licenses for human works (software, documents, music, films ...) which grants the user the freedom to reproduce, adapt and redistribute the work... ... as long as the adapted work keeps the same license Creative commons licenses are licenses applied to human works (music, documents, software ...) that grant users certain rights The specific rights depend on the particular license Some rights: Attribution Non commercial use Non derivative work allowed Derivative work allowed (provided that the same license is kept in the derivative work). The same idea as in copyleft Josep M. Rib´o Free Software Free Software and Proprietary Software The first years A History of Free Software 1980s: The begining of the Free Software Movement The FOSS development model 1990s: Linux FOSS business model 2000s: The present of FOSS Conclusion Outline 1 Free Software and Proprietary Software 2 A History of Free Software The first years 1980s: The begining of the Free Software Movement 1990s: Linux 2000s: The present of FOSS 3 The FOSS development model The Bazaar Infrastructure for FOSS projects 4 FOSS business model A collection of FOSS business models Community projects vs. corporate projects 5 Conclusion Josep M. Rib´o Free Software Free Software and Proprietary Software The first years A History of Free Software 1980s: The begining of the Free Software Movement The FOSS development model 1990s: Linux FOSS business model 2000s: The present of FOSS Conclusion 1960s: The innocence of the youth In the 1960s IBM led the computer (i.e., mainframes) market with the IBM-360 The software (including the source code) to use those mainframes was sold together with the computers Communities of IBM/360 users (SHARE) and of DEC (DECUS) shared and distributed programs without any limitation At those early years software was still free Josep M. Rib´o Free Software Free Software and Proprietary Software The first years A History of Free Software 1980s: The begining of the Free Software Movement The FOSS development model 1990s: Linux FOSS business model 2000s: The present of FOSS Conclusion 1970s: The beginning of proprietary software In 1970 IBM started to sell some of their computer software separately from the computers themselves In mid 70s, proprietary software was the dominant business model among companies: software was sold without the source code and without the right of modifying and redistributing it In 70s proprietary software started its successful trip to become the dominant business model Josep M. Rib´o Free Software Free Software and Proprietary Software The first years A History of Free Software 1980s: The begining of the Free Software Movement The FOSS development model 1990s: Linux FOSS business model 2000s: The present of FOSS Conclusion Mid 70s and first 80s: A dim light in the dark Two brilliant individual initiatives offer an alternative to the proprietary software dominant position: SPICE (Larry Nagel, 1973): A simulator program for integrated circuits (Electronic Research Laboratory in the California University, Berkeley). TEX (Donald Knuth, 1978-1985): A text processor Donald Knuth Josep M. Rib´o Free Software Free Software and Proprietary Software The first years A History of Free Software 1980s: The begining of the Free Software Movement The FOSS development model 1990s: Linux FOSS business model 2000s: The present of FOSS Conclusion The role of Unix UNIX was first developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T developers at Bell Laboratories UNIX has always been a proprietary Operating System (Bell Laboratories and Novell), However, in 1973-74, Universities had free access to Unix source code and contributed to it 1980s: Access to Unix source code was difficult and expensive Unix followed the dominant trend and chose to be entirely proprietary Josep M. Rib´o Free Software Free Software and Proprietary Software The first years A History of Free Software 1980s: The begining of the Free Software Movement The FOSS development model 1990s: Linux FOSS business model 2000s: The present of FOSS Conclusion Outline 1 Free Software and Proprietary Software 2 A History of Free Software The first years 1980s: The begining of the Free Software Movement 1990s: Linux 2000s: The present of FOSS 3 The FOSS development model The Bazaar Infrastructure for FOSS projects 4 FOSS business model A collection of FOSS business models Community projects vs. corporate projects 5 Conclusion Josep M. Rib´o Free Software Free Software and Proprietary Software The first years A History of Free Software 1980s: The begining of the Free Software Movement The FOSS development model 1990s: Linux FOSS business model 2000s: The present of FOSS Conclusion 80s: The GNU Project At early 80s Richard Stallman was a hacker working at the AI laboratory at the MIT He shared with many other developers the so-called hacker culture which promoted the sharing, modification and redistribution of software source Richard Stallman However, in 1980 a big problem occurred: The AI laboratory. at the MIT bought a new HP printer... Josep M. Rib´o Free Software Free Software and Proprietary Software The first years A History of Free Software 1980s: The begining of the Free Software Movement The FOSS development model 1990s: Linux FOSS business model 2000s: The present of FOSS Conclusion 80's: The GNU project Stallman wanted to modify the controller software of the HP (as he had done with the previous printer) so that the controller sent a message to the user whose job was being printed However, he was not able to do so, since the source code of the accompanying software was not distributed anymore... And that was only the beginning...