Chronicles of Open Source
Introduction
“OpenSource,” a very popular term nowadays for all developers, tech startups & students — has only been defined as an actual term since its beginning in the 70s & 80s. The open-source software movement initiated from an all-around revolution that completely changed how software develops & leading to the most commonly & widely spread software development community over the last several decades. But the term was first coined in 1998 by Linus-Torvalds — the entrepreneur behind Linux.
Let us start with the daily life example of the term “OpenSource,” as we all have smartphones with decent knowledge of its specification like storage capacity, camera functions, or processors. It’s easy to ignore one of the most foundational aspects of these smooth consumer gadgets: their operating systems. Google’s Android is the world’s most popular operating system that powers more than 85% of the world’s smartphones. And the amazing fact is that Android is based on the open-source software Linux operating system.
Open-source software means anyone can view the code, modify it, and, more importantly, share it with anyone else. An interesting fact of this acceptance is Microsoft Windows, which was developed and maintained by a single company & Linux is developed and maintained by more than 15,000 programmers around the world.
First Incident: RMS vs Xerox 9700
In the early 80s, RMS (Richard Matthew Stallman), a software engineer from Harvard & joined MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab. A new printer was installed, Xerox 9700 in the MIT & since the programmers at MIT created a social hack of receiving a message from the printer whenever it got stuck to save people their time and efforts. So for this hack, RMS asked for access to the source code, but he got denied. No one was able to use the previous hack for this new printer which was a massive inconvenience.
This experience forced RMS that people could freely modify the software according to their needs & for this, he asked for the source code of different projects but always got a negative response. He felt that intellectual property rights on the software were dangerous for the innovation & learning community. This arose a desire for the concept of free & open access to the source code.
Discussed the first incident of open-source software, but the first instance of open-source sharing dates back to even before the computer was developed. In 1911, revolutionary automaker Henry Ford was instrumental in launching the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association. This association launched an open-source initiative that witnessed major US auto manufacturers sharing technology patents openly without seeking any monetary benefits in return.
Rise of Free Software Movement
In the year 1983, RMS started working on a compatible operating system named GNU operating system. GNU simply stands for — GNU is Not Unix, which means it is like Unix but it is not Unix. Unlike Unix, it was supposed to introduce with complete freedom.
After a couple of years, RMS introduced FSF (Free Software Foundation), according to Stallman, ‘software is to be free but in terms of accessibility and not price.’ In FSF, users have the freedom to view the code, run the software, modify it & share it. In 1989, RMS introduced the first version of a license that could be used with free software, Copyleft which means if I give you software with full accessibility to view, modify and share, you will not deny recipients of your modified version, of the same privilege.
We use the application of the operating system, not the actual operating system. These applications need resources like memory, processing, etc. There is an entity known as ‘Kernel’ in the core system & which allocates the resources to applications.
The kernel is very necessary for the operating system. When the FSF team was already on the mission to make the GNU operating system, they started by introducing all its utilities, commands, and basic applications with their free counterparts. Finally, they introduced the GNU Hurd, the Kernel with microkernel architecture but the design was not up to the mark & it was full of bugs.
The Rescue: Linux Kernel
Linus Torvalds, a student at the University of Helsinki, created a small portable operating system for his thesis & named it Linux. After inspiring by Stallman’s talk, he released the Linux Kernel under the GNU project. Stallman accepted it since it was more stable than other operating systems and better than the HURD.
It leads to a massive revolutionary change in the software world people started working on the applications along with the Linux Kernel.
The Future of Open-Source
If we look into the present situation we have come along a long way from where it was all started. By giving the reins from the host companies to the programmer’s open-source software opened a new gateway of improvement, but the rise of open-source hasn’t been without loopholes. Many independent or startup-based projects still haven’t figured out how to make money. Even the developers of software that are widely used by major companies can struggle to raise funds to cover their costs or hire others. These are some serious consequences.
Some companies started building businesses around open-source products like Red-hat introduced licensing policy or the subscription-based model for the package of open source projects by MongoDB or Tidelift. Many big giants acquired some big open-source platforms as Microsoft acquired Github or Sun Microsystems acquired MySQL further acquired by Oracle.
Conclusion
The idea of open-source indeed turned out to be a pivotal role in the evolution of better innovation in the software world, great customer experience, learning opportunity, and hopefully, the future holds some more substantial and appreciable developments of the same kind.