Sunday 9 October 2011

Name of Blog and Forum about Open Source



1. http://foss.org.my/
Review : the online web community however is open for you to join and contribute content.
Participation for our activities are open to all.

















Review : The OSI are the stewards of the Open Source Definition (OSD) and the community-recognized body for reviewing and approving licenses as OSD-conformant.









Review : A website attempts to provide you with a road map of the names and relationships of these technologies and projects.














Review : Established in 2003, the goal of Linux Forums has been to empower users all over the world and to teach them all about the world of Linux. In addition, Linux Forums has been the place to find answers for various issues, whether beginner or advanced, through our large community of active users and experts.



















Review : Website that teach user about Linux Distributer














Review : Welcome to my Linux world !!! This is a place where you dont see that much grpahics but text. This is a place where content is given impr cool sound your are not in the right place . But if your are looking for picture , moving graphic , live streaming videos something great , something amazing something useful and something helpful .You are in it.

How To Promote And Develop Interest For Other People To Use Open Source Software???

Many users know that open source software is free. However, the use of open source among computer users is a bit less because many do not know that there are advantages in open source software other than free. Between the goodness of the users may have when using open source are:

Auditability
A rarely-understood benefit of Open Source software (any software where the source code is published) is its auditability. Closed-source software forces its users to trust the vendor when claims are made for qualities such as security, freedom from backdoors, adherence to standards and flexibility in the face of future changes. If the source code is not available those claims remain simply claims.
By publishing the source code, authors make it possible for users of the software to have confidence that there is a basis for those claims.

• Cost
Most current Open Source projects are also available free of royalties and fees, leading to the confusion around the commonly used term `free software'.

• Freedom
Freedom from a single vendor
Software vendors can go out of business, and they can arbitrarily decide to cease development of a product. How would your business cope if it relied on such a product? Open-source software allows you to retain not just the right to use the software you already have, but the ability to continue to use it as your needs change.
Freedom to modify your software
You aren't limited to what one company believes you need. Proprietary software vendors must cater for many different companies, predominantly their own. Open-source software can be tailored for the way you do business. It is usually within the resources of all but the smallest companies to modify Open Source software to suit their own needs (and potentially then to make those enhancements available as a public good).

• Support
Some software vendors produce free software, and obtain large parts of their revenue from service and support for example zope. In other situations, open-source consultants will provide training and/or support for software they recommend. However, the fundamental advantage of open-source software when it comes to support is that it's always possible to retain a company to provide support. Because the source code is freely available, organizations are not limited to obtaining support from the authors. There is no restriction on other suppliers learning enough about the software to provide adequate support whenever demand exists.






















When the user is aware of the advantages found in open source, identify ways to promote open source to the computer users are also important factors. Although many know the advantages of open source but if the campaign is to use open source such as Microsoft Windows, for certain permanent use of open source can not be expanded. There are several ways that may be made to the campaign. Among them are:

1) Provide the camp, talk, or hold a special class just for open source. In this way the user will more quickly understand and learn about open source is better. In preparation for this there must be a competent trainer and expert on open source software.

2 ) Use the approach to build an interesting video for users to refer more easily. The use of animation, images, text, colors were to develop an interest and examining the user to view the video with more confidence that they can learn how to use and understand for themselves what is open source software.






















3)Services to re-install or reformat the pc for free no charges. Free due to possible users interested in using open source software compared to windows.



















4) Advertisement of open source software in magazines, newspapers, articles about open source in detail the meaning and use of open source is.

History of Open Source

The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials.Before the termopen source became widely adopted, developers and producers used a variety of phrases to describe the concept; open source gained hold with the rise of the Internet, and the attendant need for massive retooling of the computing source code. Opening the source code enabled a self-enhancing diversity of production models, communication paths, and interactive communities. Subsequently, the new phrase "open-source software" was born to describe the environment that the new copyright, licensing, domain, and consumer issues created.




Richard Stallman

In the early 80's, a programmer named Richard Stallman worked for MIT. He spent huge amounts of time working on the original Emacs, an operating system called ITS, and the exceedingly cool LISP machines.

Stallman wrote good software. His programs were clever--they were frequently built around a few good ideas that made everything else easy.

But Stallman was also an ideologue. His software came with instructions: Share this code with your fellow users. Learn from it. Improve upon it. And when you're done, please give something back to the community.

To Stallman, this sharing was a moral principle. And as it turned out, Stallman would happily turn down money, fame and glory in the name of his moral principles.



The GNU Manifesto
In 1984, Stallman was wrestling with the software equivalent of Napster. Like the Grateful Dead, he was an artist who wanted users to share his work. He asked them to send him some money if they could--so he could write more--but he never required them to pay a cent. He didn't want to discourage sharing.
But Stallman had a larger problem: Even if users could share the software that he wrote, they wouldn't be able share anybody else's. This bothered him.
He could have gone down the Napster route, and encouraged software piracy. Or he could have given up, and only shared a few small tools.
Instead, Stallman decided to write an entire operating system, a complete set of development tools, and all the applications that anybody would ever need. He planned to give all these tools away, so that his users would have something to share.
Sure, this was a pretty laughable goal, especially for a man who lived in his office at MIT and rarely combed his hair.
Stallman's vision is laid out in the GNU Manifesto. This manifesto is either a profoundly important document or the mimeographed ravings of some guy in the city park. I've never been entirely sure which.


The GNU Project and The Free Software Foundation


"Free software" is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of "free speech", not "free beer." -Quoted from the Free Software Foundation web site
Stallman found some volunteers, set up the Free Software Foundation, and started writing software.
He wrote a new version of Emacs, which still gets rave reviews from authors like Neal Stephenson. He wrote GCC, which was one of the best C compilers of the age. He enlisted hordes of volunteers, who began to clone the entire Unix toolset (which was quite popular at the time).
The GNU project also adopted some their software from outside sources. They borrowed the X Window System from MIT and Compaq. They adopted TeX (a typesetting system) from Donald Knuth. They stayed away, however, from the BSD code, which was the target of an AT&T lawsuit at the time.


Linus Torvalds



By 1991, the GNU Project had either written or located most of the parts of a complete Unix system. But they were having problems with the kernel.
Stallman (and other volunteers) were working on a kernel called the HURD. Unfortunately, the HURD was a bit too clever, and the team had gotten in over their heads. They certainly weren't in any danger of shipping.
Meanwhile, young Linus Torvalds was hacking on a tiny kernel, just a toy. He announced it on comp.os.minix:




I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones.
To compile Linux, you needed GCC. To run any programs, you needed the GNU C library. And half of the programs available for Linux were originally written by GNU volunteers.
Linus never made any secret of his debt to the GNU project. He even decided to use their (rather complicated) software license as a way of saying thank you.


The Linux Explosion


But despite Linus's debt to the GNU project, he made a much better leader than Stallman. Linus was a software guy, pure and simple. He never spent much time writing polemics or arguing philosphy. And he never planned very far ahead. He just did his thing, and argued for his beliefs by example.
(Back when Linux had perhaps a hundred thousand users, Linus made an offhand quip about "world domination". Now that Linux is a household name, he no longer make jokes like that.)
Linus could convince people, many of whom were frightened by Stallman. And Linux grew from "just a hobby" to the third most popular operating system in the world.


Netscape and Open Source





Eric Raymond was an old friend of Stallman's. He had written some pretty good software in his day, and helped edit the Jargon File, a compedium of folklore about ITS, Unix and the Internet.
He wrote a paper called The Cathedral and The Bazaar. (The Cathedral, in this paper, doesn't actually represent proprietary software. If anything, it represents the HURD and Stallman's insular development methodologies.)




Netscape took a liking to Eric's writings, and decided to turn their browser into a bazaar.
Eric was very much into spin control, as it turned out, and wanted to repackage Stallman's radical ideas into a less intimidating form. He convened some friends, put the kibosh of the word "free" (which was politically unacceptable), and helped coin the term "open source".

At the time, people like Larry Wall, Brian Behlendorf and Guido van Rossum weren't talking to each other, or to the Linux developers. They'd built their own communities, but there was no real unification.
Tim O'Reilly sold a lot of books about Perl, Python, Apache, and various other "open source" software. The O'Reilly books were of extraordinarily high quality, but they were proprietary. (Stallman had already pointed this out to anybody who would listen.)

So people like Tim and Eric worked on the PR, and started pulling these various groups together. And for the most part, their efforts did accomplish something. Today, everyone's heard of open source, and people like Guido and Linus actually talk to each other


The True Leaders


But don't mistake the open source PR schtick for the real heart of the free software movement.
Those of us in the trenches have all wrestled with Stallman's ideas. Some of us have accepted Stallman; others have rejected him. In our hearts, most of us are uneasy about him. For better or for worse, Stallman's not a comfortable man.
Just about everybody loves Linus and Guido and Larry. They're great guys, and they write some cool software. They're decent folks, too--not fanatic preachers, but good, solid people who are a bit embarassed by their fame.
Closer to home, we all know some individual project leaders. These folks help maintain small (but important) projects. Nearly all of them are volunteers, coding for love or necessity. A few can make a living through consulting. With very few exceptions, the project leaders are wonderful, helpful people.

Reference :

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source

Sunday 7 August 2011

All about open source software

The Open Source Definition, as by the Open Source Initiative:

Introduction

Open source doesn't just mean access to the source code. The distribution terms of open-source software must comply with the following criteria:

1. Free Redistribution

The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.

2. Source Code

The program must include source code, and must allow distribution in source code as well as compiled form. Where some form of a product is not distributed with source code, there must be a well-publicized means of obtaining the source code for no more than a reasonable reproduction cost preferably, downloading via the Internet without charge. The source code must be the preferred form in which a programmer would modify the program. Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed. Intermediate forms such as the output of a preprocessor or translator are not allowed

3. Derived Works

The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.

4. Integrity of The Author's Source Code

The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the license allows the distribution of "patch files" with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license must explicitly permit distribution of software built from modified source code. The license may require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original software.

5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups

The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.

6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor

The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.

7. Distribution of License

The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.

8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product

The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program's being part of a particular software distribution. If the program is extracted from that distribution and used or distributed within the terms of the program's license, all parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original software distribution.

9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software

The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the licensed software. For example, the license must not insist that all other programs distributed on the same medium must be open-source software.

10. License Must Be Technology-Neutral

No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style of interface.


Free Software Licensing

All open source software is not distributed under the same licensing agreement. Some may use a free software license, a copyleft, or GPL compatible. The GNU GPL license is a free software license and a copyleft license, while a "GNU Lesser General Public License" is a free software license, but not a strong copyleft license. There are many different types of licenses for free software . some GNU GPL compatible, some not.

The Open Source Initiative approves open source licenses after they have successfully gone through the approval process and comply with the Open Source Definition (above). There is currently well over fifty licenses that have been approved by the OSI.
For example, the GNU General Public License (GPL) is one license that accompanies some open source software that details how the software and its accompany source code can be freely copied, distributed and modified. The most widespread use of GPL is in reference to the GNU GPL, which is commonly abbreviated simply as GPL when it is understood that the term refers to the GNU GPL. One of the basic tenets of the GPL is that anyone who acquires the material must make it available to anyone else under the same licensing agreement. The GPL does not cover activities other than the copying, distributing and modifying of the source code.

Advantage of open source software


When it comes to open source software, there are a number of factors to consider, some positive and some negative.  First, this particular type of software is actually free.  Released and distributed under the umbrella of specific terms for licensing, the purchaser would enter a special source code to use the product. Once the software has been installed, the user becomes restricted by the licensing requirements.
The dynamics associated with open source software include the following:

•    Source code included and must be used
•    Product is free
•    Modifications have to be allowed
•    No person or company can be discriminated against
•    No industry can be discriminated against
•    The author’s or programmer’s source code is to be respected
•    Licensing is neutral to technical
•    One license has to cover all people using the application

Open source is created and then given out fee.  Depending on the programmer and company, the application may be a standalone product or bundled in with other free or charged applications.  Pertaining to the advantages and disadvantages of open source software, the upside is that there are many different uses.  For instance, this type of software could cover things such as education, entertainment, ecommerce, and much more.  Some of the advantages are as follows:

•    Free – Again, while some hidden costs may exist, the software application itself costs you nothing.  Obviously, for many business owners trying to get a company started, this can be very beneficial.

•    Evolution – Open source software usually has a number of programmers and companies involved, which means as new technological advances are made, you get to enjoy them.  The fast evolution of open source software is very exciting.

•    Hands-On – On the positive side of the advantages and disadvantages of open source software, you will also find that many of the upgrades or modifications are things you can do, which eliminates the need to purchase additional items or hire a professional programmer to complete the installation.

•    Multiple Vendors – Next, whenever you purchase a shrink wrapped application, you are locked into one particular vendor.  This means that if you run into problems or have questions, you have to work with that vendor only.  Unfortunately, even the best support can take time and sometimes, money.

Now the downside of advantages and disadvantages of open source software, you would need to consider:

•    No Production – Although programmers of open source software have the best of intentions to continue on with the project, some turn their attention to other things.  For you, this could mean working with a bug filled application and finding you have no fixes that will ever be offered, unless you fork out good money to an independent programmer.

•    Support – With standard applications, you are buying a legal license, which protects you and the seller.  In this case, the company that sells the software is obligated to provide you with quality customer and technical support.  However, with open source software you could be faced with situations of needing some quick answers but find that you either does not get it in a timely manner, get no support at all, or you have to pay a significant fee for help.

•    Features – Then, most types of open source software are very innovative because these are up and coming programs.  Even so, you might find that a friend’s company that uses this type of software thinks the included features are over the top but then for your specific business, they may not add any or enough value.

As you can see, when it comes to the advantages and disadvantages of open source software, there are some definite pros and cons to consider.  It could very well be that this is the perfect solution for you, helping you to start or grow a business without having to expend a lot of money.  However, before you determine this to be the perfect solution, you need to carefully analyze the various advantages and disadvantages of open source software to ensure this is what you really want and need.

The solution might be that you use open source software along with standard software, finding the perfect balance.  There are many exciting possibilities associated with open source software but it is imperative to do all your homework before choosing the right application for your personal or business use.

Term free in open source software


0. The freedom to run the program for any purpose.
With open source software there are no licence fees, up front or ever. There is no restriction to run the software on a given number of terminals or for a specified number of users. Says Miles: “That’s not to say that it’s without any costs, but training, support, maintenance and, for web-based applications, hosting, are costs which apply to all software, whether open source or proprietary”.
1. The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs.
Whilst there are going to be relatively few librarians with the skills, time or inclination to study the source code, you are able to invite anyone with the relevant skills to study it for you. Miles again: “More importantly, access to the source code allows [library] techies to tailor the software to the specific needs of the [library]; it’s this adaptability of open source software which is its unique, er, selling point. For me, this is at the core of why open source software matters for [libraries].”
2. The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbour.
This is a critical advantage for schools, perhaps less so in the library world. For example, Koha is a fully featured ILMS. It is a very large and sophisticated piece of software. Whilst community members, particularly in Asia, are working to simplify the installation process, as of today inexperienced users will require support at installation. For the brave this is available from the email lists, but those not interested in the underlying technology or in a hurry to get started might prefer to call on the services of a support company. Either way, the call is yours.
3. The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits.
If you enhance the software, you can contribute your changes back to the project for inclusion in a future release. For the non-technical, ways to contribute to the community abound, by providing advice to new users, writing documentation or suggesting new features. Koha means ‘gift’ in the Maori language of New Zealand, where the system originated. If you appreciate the gift, you will want to give something back.
Though software that is open source is often not free of cost, it emanates from a superior model of software development. More on that in a future post.