Technology Centric Open Source Software Development
Linux® was first released on October 5, 1991[1] with an open source software license that was written by Linus Torvald. It accidentally led to the development of the largest collaborative software development project ever known. While the typical collaborative software project has 3 main contributors, the Linux Kernel development team has around 50 core developers with at least 1,000 programmers submitting kernel patches, every few months.[7],[16]
Program developers use copyright as well as software licenses in order to protect their rights. There are many different licensing options available to programmers to choose from when releasing their software than just the GNU / GPL options of Richard Stallman. There is a plethora of different software licenses out there for programmers to choose from.[1] The MIT License, which is extremely brief, is one example, that is even more popular than the GPL. Linus Torvalds likes GPLv2, but strongly believes that GPLv3 is immoral.[8],[12] Linux at some point after its initial released went with GPLv2.
Free Software Movement
Contrary to the mythology being circulated by advocates of gnu/Linux, during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, it was NOT common for computer users to have access to the source code for all programs that they regularly used. Nor, did these people even possess the technology that would make the free flow of software even remotely possible. The Internet did NOT exist during that period. Furthermore, mainframe computers at that time usually used punch cards. Programmers would write their programs with keypunch machines. All sorts of cumbersome punch card handling machines were used to managed the massive amount of punch cards used for mainframe programming. The Web did not remotely exist as we know it today, till the mid-1990s.[2] During the early days of programming, all that academia ever had was cumbersome teletype machines and the possibility of physically mailing back and forth bulky and heavy computer tapes, between the different academic institutions.
Richard Stallman loosely founded the free software movement in 1983 by launching the GNU Project.[3] Stallman, as a Linux Zealot, founded the Free Software Foundation (FSF) on October 4, 1985 in order to further support his radical free software agenda.
Open Source Software Development
Contrary to popular opinion, open source software (OSS) projects exist as a tool primarily designed to benefit application developers. The community using the developer's application is only benefited indirectly. Open source is a collaborative development technique that encourages talented programmers to contribute to a software project.
Open source software as a development methodology goes beyond Linux. The Brackets text editor is one example of open source being used by a commerical company as a software development methodology that has been shown to work quite well. In less than 2 years, over 900 extensions have been written for it by its community of users.
"In 1998, some of the people in the free software community began using the term 'open source software' instead of 'free software' to describe what they do. ... For the Open Source movement, the issue of whether software should be open source is a practical question, not an ethical one. As one person put it, 'Open source is a development methodology; free software is a social movement.'"[6] In response, the Open Source Initiative was launched during February 1998. "The group adopted the open source definition for open-source software, based on the Debian Free Software Guidelines. ... The Open Source Initiative chose the term 'open source,' in founding member Michael Tiemann's words, to 'dump the moralizing and confrontational attitude that had been associated with 'free software'" and instead promote open source ideas on "pragmatic, business-case grounds.'"[4]
Linus has explicitly stated that he "very deeply disagrees with most of the stuff that comes out of Richard Stallman's mouth."[8] Linus Torvalds ended up disassociating himself from the free and open-source software (FOSS) movement due to their proclivity towards hatred and exclusion, as well as their war against proprietary software and Microsoft.[13] Richard Stallman, himself, once criticized Ubnutu Linux for releasing egregious spyware.[5] Ergo, Linux distros are no more pure and free of egregious software practices than proprietary software.
Technology Centric Open Source Software Basics
The above video from the official Intel Software Youtube channel provides an overview of the open source software development process from a technology centric point of view.
While the gnu/Linux people incorrectly market free open-source software as something that benefits software users, that is not really, true at all. First, you have to be a talented programmer. Second, you have to be motivated enough to study the source code of a problematic program. Finally, unless you never plan on updating the program all that you really have accomplished is to create a never-ending maintenance headache. As a result, it is far better, to submit your software changes to the development team for official incorporation into the respective program as a contributor in a process known as upstreaming (see above video). Getting the public all worked up over a mantra of software freedoms and learning a large vocabulary of made up words, is largely a waste of time, is going in the wrong direction[9], is artificial, and is non-organic in development design. As Linus Torvalds likes to say: talk is cheap, what counts is producing code.[10],[11]
Linus Torvalds is Linux. The Linux Foundation, a multi-million dollar operation[14] that exists to promote both a technology centric Linux and collaboration development efforts, employs Torvalds who owns the Linux trademark. The scope of Linux is quite extensive and goes way beyond a desktop. Linus considers the huge success of both Android smartphones and Chromebooks to be a big part of the Linux success story. Linux is a technology centric operating system that can easily coexist with both proprietary and Microsoft software.
Only correspondence that is extremely specific, detailed, and includes clickable links to credible sources of information on the Web will be taken seriously by this site. Crazed rants, either opposed to or in favor of Linux, need not reply at all.
References:
- Wikipeda, Open-source software, Jul 26,2003.
- A&E Television Networks, LLC, Who invented the internet?, Dec 18, 2013.
- Wikipedia, Free software movement, Aug 24, 2001.
- Wikipedia, Open Source Initiative, May 16, 2001.
- Richard Stallman, Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?, Arp 9, 2014.
- Free Software Foundation, Inc., Why "Free Software" is better than "Open Source," Mar 26, 2016.
- Aalto University, Talk with Linus Torvalds, in Otaniemi on June 14, 2012. interviewed by Will Cardwell
- Aalto University, Talk with Linus Torvalds, in Otaniemi on June 14, 2012. interviewed by Will Cardwell
- Aalto University, Talk with Linus Torvalds, in Otaniemi on June 14, 2012. interviewed by Will Cardwell
- Aalto University, Talk with Linus Torvalds, in Otaniemi on June 14, 2012. interviewed by Will Cardwell
- "Talk is cheap. Show me the code." -- Torvalds, Linus (2000-08-25). Message to linux-kernel mailing list.
- Daniel Gillmore, Ana Guerrerero Lapez, DebConf 14: Q&A with Linus Torvalds 9 - April 2014,
- Christopher Smart, Linux Magazine, Microsoft Patches Linux; Linus Responds, Jul 22nd, 2009.
- Wikipedia, Linux Foundation, Jan 22, 2007.
- Wikipedia, MIT License, May 21, 2001.
- Ted, The mind behind Linux | Linus Torvalds, published on May 3, 2016.
