The Proposition of Open-source?

Linda M. Horne

May 9 2013

The Proposition of Open-source?

The question of ownership of information is not a new concept. With technology in a make-or-break world there are a variety of reasons that answer the question, "Why would an entity, either public or private, choose to change to open-source software?" Let's begin with what open-source software is (Beal). Open-source software is information which has its base programming available for others to see and use. Licensing is also a part of open-source software. The person who own the software may allow others to modify the code for their own use or even allow them to modify it and then sell it on as long as they allow others to see the code as well. By offering the basic programming, or source code, the owner hopes that the people who collaborate will make the program stronger, more reliable, and more available. The point is not usually financial gain, though as further on we will see financial gain can be a potential side benefit. An open-source program can be cheaper and more reliable than its proprietary counterpart in which only people involved in the ownership of the program are allowed to see and interact with the code.

Economic

In 2003 the city of Munich, Germany decided on a migration of at least 13,000 computers from Windows NT and Microsoft Office to the operating system Ubuntu and Open Office for its processing software. Munich's motivation was economic in nature (Heath). In 2012 they released figures that demonstrated they would save over 10 million Euros in the move. Why the savings? For a business to use the Microsoft operating system, they must pay licensing fees. It's like paying for your own copy of Windows, but the fees are higher, and occur yearly. The fees may include charges for customer support or referral services for migration of native applications that run on the computer. Most applications that the city of Munich uses are web based, meaning they run just fine in a browser and so did not have the usual charges for attempting to get the programs for the Linux based Ubuntu.

Most people now will notice that Microsoft no longer supplies Office at a set boxed rate. They only offer their products online at the Microsoft office site (Office). Now you must pay either a full priced box rate per computer, or pay a per month charge for a premium price. There are no longer student discounts, the home computer price for the software is the same as the student rate. Office applications can be purchased separately, but only for one computer at a time. These were some of the problems Munich had to consider when searching for cheaper software.

Time and Security

Some private individuals such as Scott Rowed decided that security was a big enough issue that switching to an open-source operating system made sense (Laden). After finding large amounts of spam on his computer, Scott attempted to remove it and found it was impossible to find it all. He reformatted the drive and attempted to reinstall Windows. It took him two days for the entire procedure. He decided to divide his computer in half, and then install Ubuntu on one side and Windows XP on the other. He rapidly found out that Ubuntu was far more secure, requiring a password to install anything at all, and all his peripherals (printer, scanner, MP3 player, digital cameras) worked just fine. The open source operating system also took far less time to install and configure than Windows did. Installing Ubuntu took less than half an hour.

Open-source software is not just limited to operating systems and word processing. Sourceforge.net contains a repository of thousands of software items available for download. Business, AV (Audio/Video), communication, Education, Games, Science, Security utilities, and Administration software is included. Bugs can be tracked and commentary or even software fixes can be submitted through the site. So with all these difficulties with proprietary software, why NOT go open-source?

In watching the newest Linux operating system Ubuntu 13.04 come out, many people complain of problems that are just not instantly or easily fixable. Chrome, the browser by Google is one that is required for some educational programs. In the new Ubuntu operating system, the old Chrome doesn't work. There are missing libraries that contain information that Chrome needs. This requires the user to go find these missing libraries. If a user is not a computer jockey, this may seem nigh impossible. A proprietary software company can usually spend more money on a customer service center where easily accessible representatives are available. An Open-source software provider may or may not have that ability. Fortuitously, the Linux community is an experienced one in terms of interaction and problem solving. For users who are overwhelmed, there are many boards, blogs, and social media outlets that are willing and quite able to provide common-sense solutions to tricky problems.

Hardware is another consideration. Proprietary hardware does not always play "nice" with open-source software leading to more confusion. The drivers for some graphics cards may not work correctly. Open-source drivers may or may not work with proprietary hardware. In order to prevent alternate operating systems from being installed in competition with Windows, Microsoft created the UEFI secure boot sector called UEFI Secure Boot, in which open-source operating systems have enormous difficulties attempting to install (Tung). Open-source hardware manufacturers are required to get permission from Microsoft in order to turn secure boot off. Permission may be revoked at any time. This leads to another reason some entities choose to go open-source.

Politics

There are certain entities that take open-source very seriously. The open-source initiative (OSI) at http://opensource.org/osd provides a community with directives that each of its members agrees to. The people who are a part of this community utilize open-source not just because of economic or technical reasons, but because they believe it is the right thing to do according to their values. They believe that, "The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in." (Such as UEFI Secure Boot)

In 2005 Dana Blankenhorn, a professional business journalist, remarked that the key to open-source is transparency. That the key advantage to open-source [software] is that you can see the code. It doesn't mean no regulation, it means you can tell that regulation is being followed and the process becomes "fair." (Blankenhorn) A good example of this is a mathematician who was an assistant professor at Harvard also noted that transparency was an issue for his profession. William Stein says that the proprietary software tools available didn't allow mathematicians to see how a computer calculation was performed, so in collaboration with the University of Washington he decided to create his own open-source tool. Sage is not just more affordable, it is collaborative and transparent so that programmers can make a more reliable program that does the math correctly (ScienceDaily).

Side Benefits

While the direct purpose of open-source software is not financial, Canonical, the backer of the Linux based operating system Ubuntu has discovered that a side benefit of their operating system is that there are people willing to put money into it for a good product resulting from open-source software. Recognizing that HTML5 is open source, Canonical began developing an operating system that would go mobile for phones and tablets.

Phonedog.com, a major reviewer of phones acknowledges that Android has a spot that an Ubuntu phone could fill. While most Android code is open, not all of it is consistently available. This makes for a frustrating time for developers and an opportunity for Canonical to actually make an impact with a mobile system people will be willing to pay for (Bonar).

As Canonical and other open-source software developers become more major players in the technological arena it is conceivable to think that a significant amount of consumers will continue to become more interested in open-source projects. Why? Because the issues that proprietary software originally brought to the consumer have now become detrimental problems. These can only be addressed by the affordability, reliability, security, and transparency that open-source provides.

Works Cited

Bean, Vanie. "What is Open Source Software?". Webopedia. N.p. Sep. 26 2008. Web. May 6 2013.

Blankenhorn, Dana. "Open Source Transparency." Moores Lore. Corante. Apr. 19 2005. Web. May 6 2013.

Bonar, Chase. "Hey Canonical: I just tested Ubuntu for phones and I'm sold." PhoneDog. PhoneDog LLC. Feb. 24 2013. Web. May 6 2013.

"Free Software Brings Affordability, Transparency to Mathematics." Science Daily. ScienceDaily LLC. Dec. 7 2007. Web. May 6 2013.

Heath, Nick. "No Microsoft, open source software really is cheaper, insists Munich." ZDNet. CBS. Feb. 7 2013. Web. May 6 2013.

Laden, Greg. "Switching to Linux: One man's personal experience." Science Blogs. National Geographic. Dec. 22 2011. Web. May 6 2013

Office. Microsoft Corporation., n.d. Web. May 6 2013. <http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/buy/ >

Tung, Liam. "Microsoft Windows 8 UEFI Secure Boot complaint: The case for and against." ZDNet. CBS. Mar. 28 2013. Web. May 6 2013.