Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
source software (FLOSS) is a software that is both a free software and an open source. FOSS is
a computer software that is available in source code (open source) form and that can be used,
studied, copied, modified, and redistributed without restriction, or with restrictions that only
ensure that further recipients have the same rights under which it was obtained (free or libre).
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified
without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodiied
form either without restriction or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients have
the same rights under which it was obtained and that manufacturers of consumer products
incorporating free software provide the software as source code. The word “free” in the term
refers to freedom (liberty) and is not necessarily related to monetary cost. Although FOSS is
often available without charge, it is not bound to such a restriction.
GNU/Linux (normally called just Linux), perhaps, is the best example of an open-source
project created by the many. Linus Torvalds originally developed Linux in 1994 as a litle hack-
ing project to replace a program called Minix, which was a teaching tool in computer science
courses. He released the source code to everyone using the Internet. The hacker and the soft-
ware developer community at-large were immediately enthralled by Linux and began con-
tributing improvements to the source code. The program went from being a litle side pro-
ject to a full PC-based operating system to which more than 3000 developers distributed over
90 countries on five continents contributed. In the first few years of its development, more
than 15,000 people submited code or feedback to the Linux community. Linux went from con-
sisting of a few hundred lines of code to several millions of lines of code. Despite this rapid
growth and large developer community, the reliability and quality of the operating system
were ranked very highly [ 3 ] . These observations provide support of Raymond's claim that
“given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow” [ 4 ], meaning that problems become easier to
solve with more collaborators. This is the fundamental strength of the open-source paradigm.
We are all smarter than any one of us. Although the basics of open source remain the same
since the start of the movement, the current definition of open source has been expanded to
include such criteria as free redistribution rights and no discrimination against people/groups
in accessing source code [ 5 ].
As much of the Internet now relies on FOSS, we all use it every day. Even if your laptop is
not running a version of Linux like the one I am typing on now (System 76 running Ubuntu 2 ),
the back ends of the world's most popular websites are all run on open-source software (e.g.
Google, Facebook, etc.). FOSS is not only just as good as commercial software—it is often su-
perior. If an open-source software such as GNU/Linux is compared head-to-head against Mi-
crosoft's centralized and closed system of software development, a perhaps surprising res-
ult surfaces. A neutral technical assessment finds that open-source software, developed in the
early days mostly by unpaid volunteers, is often of superior quality to the software developed
by one of the most powerful companies in the history of the world employing unquestionably
extremely intelligent people [ 6 ]. This remarkable result stands against conventional wisdom
that would argue the profit motive and market forces would enable Microsoft to develop su-
perior software to any random group of volunteers. Microsoft is a large company, with an-
nual revenue of over US$40 billion, yet many of its products suffer from technical drawbacks
that include bloat, lack of reliability, and security holes. Microsoft remains dominant in the PC
market largely because of inertia, but Linux eats up an ever larger market share (particularly in
servers), because open source is simply more efficient and adaptable than closed, hierarchical
systems [ 7 ]. This is due, historically at least, in a large part because a lot more people collab-
orate on Linux than on Microsoft products. Whereas Microsoft might utilize a few thousand
programmers and software engineers to debug their code, the Linux community has access
 
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