Free & Open Source Software: Victoria Tan & Ameel Zia Khan

Free & Open Source Software Victoria Tan & Ameel Zia Khan

Information Strategy Seminar (15 November, 2007)

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

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. Raymond’s start Open Source Initiative (OSI) Sources: [1] The GNU Manifesto, FSF Website, Wikipedia

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 (O’Reilly), [1] ComputerHope.com

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.)

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

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)

›

Source: Business Horizons, OSS Watch

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

…The Ugly › Myths – – – – –

Attraction is price tag Savings aren’t real There’s no support It’s a legal minefield It’s insane for mission-critical applications • Funny, since over 50% of FOSS use is in this area

– It isn’t ready for the desktop • 26% of surveyed companies are using it on the desktop

Source: CIO Magazine, Forrester (March 2007)

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

The Business Case for FOSS

Return on Investment: Software Only Microsoft Linux/FOSS Solution Solution

Savings

Company A: 50 Users

$87,988

$80

$87,908

Company B: 100 Users

$136,734

$80

$136,654

Company C: 250 Users

$282,974

$80

$282,894

Source: UNDP-APDIP (also for next two slides)

ROI: Microsoft Solution Software Cost

ROI: FOSS Solution Software Cost

ROI: Including Training & Switching Costs

Source: Open Source Academy, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Bristol City Council

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

FOSS Usage: Large Organizations

Source: Optaros

FOSS Usage: Mid-Sized Organizations

Source: Optaros

FOSS Usage

Source: Forrester (March 2007)

Reasons for Use

Source: Forrester (March, 2007)

Some Numbers › FOSS saved companies money in 2004: – Large companies (>$1b revenues): $3.3m – Mid-sized companies ($50m to $1b): $1.1m – Small companies (<$50m): $0.5m

› 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

Cost Impact

Benefit By Industry

Biggest Barriers › Executives lack knowledge about benefits, have quality and support fears › Legal and licensing issues › Corporate cost allocation policies don’t incentivize reduction in cost of commercial software › Difficulty of procuring open source systems that will be supported after installation

Source: Optaros (2005)

Concerns About Using FOSS

Source: Forrester (March, 2007)

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

Meeting Business Goals

Source: Forrester

Bottom Line › It’s not a technology issue, it’s a business issue › Key is to identify which projects make sense for open source and which don’t › Do the usual ROI calculation and make your choice accordingly

Questions?

FOSS Benchmarks › Two significant frameworks – Open Source Maturity Model – Business Readiness Rating

› Benchmark characteristics: – – – –

Functionality Community Maturity Trend

Source: OSS Watch

Role of Open Source in the Future

Source: Forrester (March 2007)

In-House Sourcing Workflow

Source: Source IT (Australian Government)

Differences in Acquisition Methods

Source: Optaros

FOSS Usage: By Industry & Software Category

Source: Optaros (2005)

Web Server Software – Share in October 2007

Source: Netcraft

Web Server Software – 2001-2007 Growth

Source: Netcraft