EU-DIGEST

Open source, free software and Linux – How does Red Hat make money? - by Jim Whitehurst

The open source model, by its nature, is a 21st century model. We don’t think in terms of, nor do we act in ways where we think about control. We think about influence. We don’t think about ownership. We think about communities of collaboration. So, instead of trying to amass intellectual capital, we try to distribute and build the largest base of capital around that. Now what that means in terms of the way executives need to lead is that we have to be a very, kind of loose, non-hierarchical group of managers who’s comfortable in a role of influence rather than leadership. And, you know, it’s particularly important because the boundaries of the corporation become very porous.

Somebody’s changing a component of Linux everyday, which again is great to add new functionality, but if you’re running the New York Stock Exchange, the last thing you want is for your core operating platform to change everyday. Red Hat offers a whole series of services that make the open source development model available to the enterprise. So Red Hat offers, obviously, service and support, and testing; but they also guarantee that they will continue to support their platforms and update some new hardware they run, security, and other patches for 7 years after a new version comes out. So, again, if you are someone like the New York Stock Exchange, who may spend tens or hundreds of millions of dollars riding on top of that platform, you can be confident that for the next decade your application will continue to run.

Labels: Open Source

The New Socialism: Global Collectivist Society Is Coming Online - by Kevin Kelly

We're not talking about your grandfather's socialism. In fact, there is a long list of past movements this new socialism is not. It is not class warfare. It is not anti-American; indeed, digital socialism may be the newest American innovation. While old-school socialism was an arm of the state, digital socialism is socialism without the state. This new brand of socialism currently operates in the realm of culture and economics, rather than government—for now.

Communal aspects of digital culture run deep and wide. Wikipedia is just one remarkable example of an emerging collectivism—and not just Wikipedia but wikiness at large. Ward Cunningham, who invented the first collaborative Web page in 1994, tracks nearly 150 wiki engines today, each powering myriad sites. Wetpaint, launched just three years ago, hosts more than 1 million communal efforts. Widespread adoption of the share-friendly Creative Commons alternative copyright license and the rise of ubiquitous file-sharing are two more steps in this shift. Mushrooming collaborative sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, the Hype Machine, and Twine have added weight to this great upheaval. Nearly every day another startup proudly heralds a new way to harness community action. These developments suggest a steady move toward a sort of socialism uniquely tuned for a networked world.

Labels: Internet, Open Source

Black Duck estimates the cost to develop presently available Open Source Software at 387 billion

Open source software (OSS) and collaborative development have grown from being academic pursuits in the early 1980s into a major economic and development force transforming the way software is created today. According to Black Duck research there are over 200,000 OSS projects on the Internet representing more than 4.9 billion lines of available code. They estimate that reproducing this OSS would cost $387 billion and would take 2.1 million people-years of development. In addition, they estimate that 10% of US-based development, representing $22 billion, is redundant and could be offset using OSS, much of which can be reinvested for true innovation. This is in effect would be a potential fiscal stimulus for innovation, larger than many of the programs in the Obama Administration’s $787 billion fiscal stimulus plan. Estimating what OSS code is worth is difficult to answer precisely, but Black Duck have made an estimate using widely accepted methods to get a first-order approximation. In October 2008, the Linux Foundation published their estimate of the value just for for both Fedora 9 ($10.8 B) and the Linux Kernel ($1.4 B) alone.

For additional information on this study by Black Duck click on this link

Labels: EU, Internet, Open Source, Open Source Software

Mozilla charts why Microsoft's PC lock is 'potent' - by Matt Assay

Mozilla's Asa Dotzler, in attempting to visualize the Web's user growth since 1996, gives two startling suggestions, neither of which will endear him to the Microsoft Internet Explorer crowd.

The browser war is heating up, with Microsoft IE steadily losing market share to Firefox, Safari, and Google Chrome, and the stakes are huge. If Dotzler is right, and that first Web experience sticks with 100 million new users each year, ensuring that those new users have a real, open choice is critical. They say this is why Mozilla is fighting hard in the European Union to ensure that Microsoft doesn't get to use its desktop hegemony to cement a browser monopoly that could threaten to paralyze the Web for decades. It's why we should want the world's first experience with a Web browser to be an open one: open source, open standards, open Web.

Labels: EU, Internet, Open Source, Open Source Software

Trade group ( Sun, Oracle and IBM) joins browser battle against Microsoft in Europe - by Samantha Rose Hunt

Trade group ( Sun, Oracle and IBM) joins browser battle against Microsoft in Europe

The European Commission (EC) won a brand new member in its fight against Microsoft over the Internet Explorer web browser. A trade group that represents rival software companies such as Sun, Oracle and IBM, The European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) joined the fight as an interested third party, which allows the group to speak at a hearing if Microsoft chooses to move forward with one. Three other groups have also joined the Opera in the battle: Mozilla, Google, and the Free Software Foundation Europe. In January, the EU accused Microsoft of distorting competition by attaching the Internet Explorer browser to its Operating System, forcing it on every Windows based PC.

Microsoft must reply to the formal statement of objections sent to the company by the EU back in January by April 21. The company can either request a hearing with regulators or submit a written response to both Opera and the other involved parties.

Labels: EU, Internet, Open Source, Open Source Software

An Open-Source Presidency in US ? - "Its already endorsed and employed by EU" - by John Dragoon

President Obama has been praised and vilified for exploring the use of open-source technology. Yet touting open-source software use in the public sector is nothing new. The U.S. actually lags behind the governments of the Netherlands, Brazil and others that have effectively mandated open source over proprietary software in civil and federal government. The U.K. recently moved to favor open-source adoption while the European Commission has recommended the adoption of open source across all European Union member countries.

The U.S. government's cautious approach to open-source software is certainly about to change, driven by the vast amount of money at stake. The US government spends nearly $12 billion a year on software alone--a figure that covers just capital investments, not the ongoing maintenance and upgrade costs. There's little doubt that open source can replace many proprietary products effectively. Ubiquitous technologies such as server software that runs data centers, database applications, operating systems and productivity suites on desktops and laptops are especially good targets. With the world in dire need of belt-tightening, this is an opportune time to invest in open source and pave the way for greater innovation while drastically lowering expenses.

Labels: Brazil, Economy, EU, IT Industry, Netherlands, Open Source, US

Linux Foundation Moblin Project Takes Off

The first developer meeting for the Moblin project under the Linux Foundation started today at the 3rd Annual Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit at the Hotel Kabuki, San Francisco, CA. Earlier the Linux Foundation (LF), the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, had announced in a press report it would host the industry's most advanced and open Linux-based mobile project, Moblin. Created in 2007, the Moblin project will be supported by the Linux Foundation. With technical support from the industry's highly respected kernel developers and a neutral, third party host, the Moblin project is primed to be the most advanced and open mobile Linux platform. Moblin is an Open Source project that supports Linux-based software platforms and is optimized for the next generation of mobile devices including netbooks, mobile Internet devices (MIDs), in-vehicle infotainment systems, and other embedded devices. Linux said that in this economic climate, these markets are among the fastest-growing in computing, and Linux is increasingly considered the OS of choice for vendors who require more attractive margins, faster time to market and custom branding. Fifteen operating system vendors have committed to distribute Moblin-based products, including Asianux, Canonical, DeviceVM, gOS, MontaVista, Novell, and Wind River, among others.

Moblin is an optimized Open Source Linux software stack and technology framework that delivers visually rich Internet and media experience on Intel® Atom(TM) Processor-based devices including MIDs, netbooks/nettops, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), and embedded systems. Moblin is an open source project where key Moblin technologies are incubated and enhanced by the Linux open source community. Moblin-based operating system products are created and distributed by Linux Operating System Vendors (OSV).

Labels: Linux, Moblin, Open Source

Easy web authoring - Open Source - Free web page editing

KompoZer is a complete web authoring system that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing. KompoZer is based on Gecko, the layout engine inside Mozilla; it's a super-fast, very reliable, standards conformant engine maintained on a daily basis by a wide community of developers. Its remarkable support of XML, CSS and JavaScript offers the best authoring platform on the market. Its architecture based on XUL makes it the most extensible editing tool ever. KompoZer is designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive, professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML or web coding.

Labels: Open Source, Software

Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in.The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a non-profit corporation formed to educate about and advocate for the benefits of open source and to build bridges among different constituencies in the open-source community. One of our most important activities is as a standards body, maintaining the Open Source Definition for the good of the community. The Open Source Initiative Approved License trademark and program creates a nexus of trust around which developers, users, corporations and governments can organize open-source cooperation.

Get great Open source software programs for your computer. Why pay a fortune if you can get it for free.

Free and open-source software is good for you and for the world. No adware, no spyware, just good software.

Labels: Internet, Open Source, Software

The EU's New Heat on Microsoft - by Jennifer L. Schenker

Will Microsoft's struggle with the European Union's antitrust watchdog never end? The announcement Feb. 27 that the European Commission is slapping more than $1.3 billion in new fines on the software maker (MFST) is the clearest signal yet that the battle between Redmond and Brussels is far from over. This time, the commission is again penalizing the company for failing to comply with a 2004 order to reduce what it charges rivals for access to the information they need to make their products work better with Microsoft's market-dominant software. Combined with earlier fines against the software giant totaling more than $600 million, the EU has now fined Microsoft nearly $2 billion in a clash that began nearly decade ago and culminated with a landmark court case in September. The new European investigations come as Microsoft finds itself in danger of seeing EU governments effectively ban its software to create documents. The European Commission and its member states have been mulling a mandate that all government documents be created in the Open Document Format (ODF), an open source competitor to the proprietary format used in Microsoft Word.Microsoft's attempts to push its own new document format—which it claims is open and critics say is not—is coming under the scrutiny of antitrust authorities in Brussels and could lead to yet another legal showdown.

Note EU-Digest: "Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of EU competition policy that the Commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision," Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement. For years after the decision Microsoft said it was making every effort to comply with the Commission's orders. "Talk is cheap, flouting the rules is expensive," Kroes said. "We don't want talk and promises. We want compliance." Good job Mrs. Neelie Kroes, not only Microsoft competitors but also European consumers will benefit.

Labels: Economy, EU, Microsoft, Open Source

The Netherlands Adopts Open-Source Software - by Raju Shanbhag

The Netherlands Economic Affairs Ministry has set a deadline of April 2008 for its agencies to start using open source software — a move signifying the nation’s push to embrace open software. The plan was approved unanimously at a meeting of two parliamentary commissions. The Netherlands government expects to save at least euro 6.09 million (US $ 8.8 million a year )on city housing registers alone after switching to open source. Microsoft has said it is worried about and opposed to the Netherlands government’s policy that its agencies should prefer only open source. Said Bos of Microsoft Netherlands: “We think it’s not in the best interest of the wider software market to single out one model for endorsement like this.”

Labels: Computer industry, EU, Netherlands, Open Source

The Free Software Directory is a project of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). They catalog useful free software that runs under free operating systems — particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants. Licenses are verified for each and every program listed in their directory. The FSF provides this directory as a service to the free software community. Please consider donating to the FSF to help support this project.

Labels: FSF, Open Source, Software

Open Source: The Internet must not be proprietary - by Dana Blankenhorn

"There is an important lesson which can be drawn as a string through a host of recent stories, from Comcast and Cox Cable throttling BitTorrent to Verizon doing the SiteFinder thing to depredations concerning the iPhone and open spectrum.The whole idea of the Internet is that it’s a network of networks in which competition is assured. When anyone tries to close down progress, consumers are able to route around it. What began with the network spread to software in the form of open source. The two are linked. The end of the software monopoly is tied directly to the end of the network monopoly. Recreate the latter and you can recreate the former.But the big stories of this year all show that network monopolies are coming back, at least in the U.S. If I want to dump Comcast as my home ISP, my only choice is AT&T. That’s no choice. A network defined by a single owner is not the Internet. Only choice and competition enable the Internet we’ve come to love for over a decade to function."

Labels: EU, Internet, Open Source, USA

Solution for EU to accelerate research and development: How the Open Source Movement Has Changed Education: 10 Success Stories

Recently, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced that the OCW program, a free and open educational resource (OER) for educators, students, and self-learners around the world, is online and will be completed by 2008. The OCW provides open access to course materials for up to 1,550 MIT courses, representing 34 departments and all five MIT schools. The goal is to include materials from all MIT courses by next year. MIT provides just one of the 10 open source educational success stories. Open source and open access resources have changed how colleges, organizations, instructors, and prospective students use software, operating systems and online documents for educational purposes. And, in most cases, each success story also has served as a springboard to create more open source projects.

Note EU-Digest: Open Source education is an excellent way for the EU to accelerate the improvement of its resource and development base and educational curriculum methodology. Education should not be privatized , but open to everyone for as little cost as possible. The Open Source system in connection with the Internet seems to present an ideal opportunity."

Labels: Education, EU, Internet, Open Source

More than half of all German companies use Open Source

German companies are world leaders in the use of Open Source software. In a survey of IT procurement officers from Germany, Great Britain, and the US/Canada, 59 percent of those in Germany said that they use OSS in their companies. The figures were far lower in Great Britain and the US/Canada at 48 and 38 percent, respectively.

Eighty (80%) percent of those surveyed said that the main benefit of Open Source was that no licensing fees had to be paid. In addition, the companies used OSS because they found it to be more flexible, because they wanted access to the source code, because they use open platforms, and because they want to be independent of proprietary providers such as Microsoft. Those surveyed said that the main drawbacks were the lack of long-term support, exemption from the rights of third parties, possible incompatibility with current IT infrastructure, and a lack of familiarity with OSS in the company. Nonetheless, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks for 60 percent of those surveyed.

Labels: EU, Germany, Open Source

Let your computer fly free - by Mike Butcher

"There are plenty of applications which are cheaper than Microsoft's - but it scarcely seemed worth it, given that we still only use 20 per cent of what most modern software is capable of. Instead, I decided to go cheap and cheerful: I was going to run my laptop for free. The first port of call was finding an operating system that could replace Windows. Linux, the free, open-source platform, was the obvious choice. There are dozens of Linux-based systems to choose from, but one of the simplest to use is Ubuntu. You simply download and install it to your computer and hey presto - an operating system".

Labels: Computers, Open Source, Windows

Firefox use in Europe nears 25 per cent - Iain Thomson

Use of the open source Firefox browser in Europe has grown five per cent in the past 12 months, and is approaching 50 per cent in some countries. French web analyst firm XiTi reported that European use of the browser has risen to 24.1 per cent, up from 19.4 per cent last year. In Finland the rate is over 41 per cent. Overall, eastern Europe is leading Firefox use in the West.

The launch of Firefox 2.0 provided a big boost, according to the analysts, which Microsoft failed to match with Internet Explorer 7.

Labels: Europe, Firefox, Open Source, Software

Open-source mobile phones could unleash sales-Neo1973 to be launched Sept 11 - by Dr Arnat Leemakdej

The Chinese government has joined with a large cellular phone manufacturer, First International Computing (FIC) to create the first phone that runs an open-source operating system called OpenMoko.

Their phone comes with all the goodies: a touch screen, micro SD flash card slot, Bluetooth, GPRS, and Global Positioning System (GPS). The phone also can run Windows Mobile as an alternative operating system. The prototype is now ready to ship to developers; the public release date has been set this year for Sept 11. The model is called Neo1973 in recognition of the year the cellular phone was first invented.

Neo1973 sounds like the first Apple II computer and its clones in 1977. Those used open source for all the internal codes, thus triggering the widespread use of microcomputers in business and for personal use worldwide. On the software side it's quite certain that OpenMoko will be based on Linux and allows almost anything to happen. You can develop software that co-ordinates the GPS, the Internet, the voice and the SMS of the phone.

Neo1973 also has the capability called the Application Manager that works similar to the apt-get function of Linux. This will make your phone like a PC so you can upgrade your software or even the operating system. And best of all you can share the software with your friends.

Labels: Cellular Phones, China, Neo1973, Open Source