Free

1
Free Open Source Software
Victoria Tan Ameel Zia Khan
Information Strategy Seminar (15 November, 2007)
2
Presentation Overview

• What is Free Open Source Software (FOSS)?
• History, philosophy, how it works
• Pros cons
• Examples
• The Business Case for FOSS
• ROI calculations
• Usage trends

3
Brief History

• Free Software
• 1983 Richard Stallman launches GNU project
• To create a sufficient body of software to
  get along without any software that is not free
  1
• 1985 Stallman starts Free Software Foundation
  (FSF)
• Open Source Software
• 1998 Netscape releases its source code under
  Netscape Public License
• In response to Microsoft making Internet Explorer
  free
• 1998 Bruce Perens and Eric S. Raymonds start
  Open Source Initiative (OSI)

Sources 1 The GNU Manifesto, FSF Website,
Wikipedia
4
How Does It Work?

• Developer gets an idea, scratches that itch
• Hello everybody out there using minix - I'm
  doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby,
  won't be big and professional like gnu) for
  386(486) AT clones. Linus Trovalds, creator
  of Linux in 1991 1
• Uploads code to a place where others can access
  it
• For example, SourceForge or FreshMeat
• The code is published under an open source
  license
• Such as GPL, the GNU Public License

Sources ONLamp.com (OReilly), 1
ComputerHope.com
5
How Does It Work?

• Informal process of software development
  commences
• Ideas shared, trial and error, software improves
• Software changes direction
• Software gets finished or is forgotten
• Linux, Apache, Firefox maintained by thousands
• Others maintained (if that) by one or two people
• Developers come and go, project becomes active or
  dormant
• Unless someone takes responsibility for
  maintaining it (e.g. Red Hat, Apache Foundation,
  Mozilla.org, etc.)

6
Open Source Philosophy

• Users should be treated as co-developers
• Linus Law Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are
  shallow
• Release early versions quickly
• Have frequent integrations into the rest of the
  code
• Have several versions of the software
• Stable and buggier versions
• Have high modularity
• Have a dynamic decision-making structure

Sources Wikipedia, Gregorio Robles, Eric S.
Raymond
7
The Good, The Bad

• Pros
• License is free
• No vendor lock-in
• Large developer base
• Community support
• More reliable
• More secure
• More flexible
• More localization (i.e. more multi-lingual)

• Cons
• Many versions, vendors
• Fear or no one to blame
• Fewer features
• Limited desktop use (for now)
• Limited marketing
• May have limited interoperability
• Documentation quality varies

Source Business Horizons, OSS Watch
8
The Ugly

• Myths
• Attraction is price tag
• Savings arent real
• Theres no support
• Its a legal minefield
• Its insane for mission-critical applications
• Funny, since over 50 of FOSS use is in this area
• It isnt ready for the desktop
• 26 of surveyed companies are using it on the
  desktop

Source CIO Magazine, Forrester (March 2007)
9
Popular FOSS Examples

• Servers, Middleware
• Apache, Squid
• BIND, Sendmail
• JBOSS, Tomcat
• MySQL
• Operating Systems
• Linux (and variants)
• Languages
• Perl, Python, PHP
• Ruby on Rails

• Desktop
• Firefox, Thunderbird
• OpenOffice.org
• LimeWire, BitTorrent
• Content Management
• Drupal, TYPO3
• MediaWiki, WordPress
• Other
• Sugar CRM

10
(No Transcript)
11
The Business Case for FOSS
12
Return on Investment Software Only
Source UNDP-APDIP (also for next two slides)
13
ROI Microsoft Solution Software Cost
14
ROI FOSS Solution Software Cost
15
ROI Including Training Switching Costs
Source Open Source Academy, Office of the Deputy
Prime Minister, Bristol City Council
16
Trends

• FOSS is moving up the software stack (i.e. from
  the server level to the desktop)
• From Linux MySQL to Firefox OpenOffice.org
• Is used frequently within business departments
  but not across the enterprise
• There is an increased interest is FOSS at all
  levels of the organization

Source Optaros
17
FOSS Usage Large Organizations
Source Optaros
18
FOSS Usage Mid-Sized Organizations
Source Optaros
19
FOSS Usage
Source Forrester (March 2007)
20
Reasons for Use
Source Forrester (March, 2007)
21
Some Numbers

• FOSS saved companies money in 2004
• Large companies (1b revenues) 3.3m
• Mid-sized companies (50m to 1b) 1.1m
• Small companies (
• 33 of 600 companies surveyed in 2006 used open
  source databases
• 50 of web servers on the Internet in October,
  2007 use Apache

Source Optaros, IDC, Netcraft
22
Cost Impact
23
Benefit By Industry
24
Biggest Barriers

• Executives lack knowledge about benefits, have
  quality and support fears
• Legal and licensing issues
• Corporate cost allocation policies dont
  incentivize reduction in cost of commercial
  software
• Difficulty of procuring open source systems that
  will be supported after installation

Source Optaros (2005)
25
Concerns About Using FOSS
Source Forrester (March, 2007)
26
Future Areas of Interest for Businesses

• Software development tools 82
• Database management systems 67
• IT data center/operations management 67
• Content management or portals 54

Source Optaros
27
Meeting Business Goals
Source Forrester
28
Bottom Line

• Its not a technology issue, its a business
  issue
• Key is to identify which projects make sense for
  open source and which dont
• Do the usual ROI calculation and make your choice
  accordingly

29
Questions?
30
FOSS Benchmarks

• Two significant frameworks
• Open Source Maturity Model
• Business Readiness Rating
• Benchmark characteristics
• Functionality
• Community
• Maturity
• Trend

Source OSS Watch
31
Role of Open Source in the Future
Source Forrester (March 2007)
32
In-House Sourcing Workflow
Source Source IT (Australian Government)
33
Differences in Acquisition Methods
Source Optaros
34
FOSS Usage By Industry Software Category
Source Optaros (2005)
35
Web Server Software Share in October 2007
Source Netcraft
36
Web Server Software 2001-2007 Growth
Source Netcraft