Open source has emerged as one of the most important trends in software development. Over a relatively short period of time the application of open source methodologies has grown significantly in scope as has its usage. Here is a look at the path traversed by this software movement

To better understand the concept of free and open source software one need to understand the real definition of a hacker .Most people perceive hacker as computer experts who illegally gain access to system and tamper with sensitive information. This could not be further from the truth.

The Jargon File, a glossary of hacker slang, defines a hacker as

“A person who delights in having an intimate understanding of the internet workings of a system, computers and computer networks in particular.”

It comes as no surprise that hacker have been ubiquitous since the creation of electronic computers.

The Pre-Hacker Culture:

During the 1960’s, if a student travelled to another university and found a particular piece of code interesting, he was more than welcome to take it back with him. Moreover, there were no ramifications for experimenting and sharing code with peers. At that time, the concept of proprietary software (that is, software which sets restrictions on usage and private modification- commonly referred to as closed-source software) had not fully evolved. Large computer corporations were under the notion that the money lay in selling hardware. As a result, proprietorships of software were largely ignored.

People didn’t cling to this assumption for long. Soon, corporations started developing software and licensing it to people. Not only did users lose the freedom to modify and change the software they purchased but they also learned to live with this lack of freedom and over time, considered it normal.

Richard Stallman, a hacker and software developer from the MIT labs saw this threat long before anyone else did. He wanted to create a free operating system that anyone could use, modify and share. He started off by contributing necessary tools such as a free complier, text editor , debugger etc. by the early 90’s he had most parts of GNU operating system, with the exception of a kernel. Help came from across the ocean, when a Finnish student, Linux Trovalds, initiated the development of the Linux kernel.

Hackers from all over the world download this kernel, modified it, added extra drivers and improved it. They started to integrate the Linux kernel into the GNU operating system and thus GNU/Linux was born. Today, GNU software is used in a number of operating systems, such as Mac OS, Solaris, BSD, and even Windows.

The Hacker Manifesto:

In 1986 a 21 year-old hacker named “The Mentor” (Loyd Blankenship) defined an entire generation of geeks with a short essay called The Hacker Manifesto. His attempt at explaining the hacking culture was much like how Dylan or the Beatles defined the revolution of the early 70’s with their music.

The paragraphs extracted from the defining essay give considerably insight into minds of hackers from around the globe.

“This is our world now…the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if profiteering gluttons didn’t run it, and you call us criminals. We explore…and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge …and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias….and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars you murder, cheat and lie to us and try to make s believe it’s for our own good, yet we are the criminals.”

“Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for. ”

Floss- The Free, Libre And Open Source Software Movement:

In 1994, a hacker by the name of Marc Ewing created a distribution called Red Hat Linux. Although there were other distribution at that time, this was the first time someone had actually packaged all the required applications to create a complete distribution. Red Hat may not have been the first FLOSS Company, but it was the first company to make it big. Red Hat challenged the proprietary software market space and managed to crave a niche for itself. On August 11, 1999 Red Hat went public and set a record of the eight biggest first-day gains.

Numerous other companies followed Red Hat’s footsteps. MySQL AB was formed in 1995 b three hackers, Michael Wideius, David Axmark and Allan Larsson. They built the most widely-used, reliable and fast database and gave it to developers for free. Today, MySQL powers innumerable websites worldwide. In Jan 2008, Sun Microsystems expressed interest in acquiring MYSQL AB. Months later; they signed the largest contract in the history of the company.

Such companies started pushing FLOSS into other companies that relied on proprietary software such as UNIX or Windows. The quality of software they offered and the price at which they offered and the price at which they offered it made FLOSS a big ht in corporations. It soon started spreading like a virus everywhere. Soon, people started porting FLOSS software and operating systems to a number of devices, such as PDAs, mobile phones and gaming consoles.

FLOSS created such an impact in the software industry that even Sun Microsystems, a longtime supporter, started releasing all its software under a free license. In a time when people were trying to protect their source code Sun Microsystems made it freely available. This gamble paid off and Java’s performance in the market jumped tremendously after that released it under a free license. This was because a huge community was now contributing to improving this language. Open Solaris, OpenOffice , are other such examples.

Open Source Collaboration Online:

The rise of the internet further enabled the collaboration that is inherent to Open Source software development. Initially developers relied on mIRC and FTP to share code and collaborate on software projects. However, the free software, the free software and Open Source movement got a substantial boost during the latter half of this decade, thanks to the proliferation of repositories.

Open Source Grows Up:

As information Age, a publication focusing on business technology puts it,

“Today, Open Source software is no longer just a free, second-place substitute for proprietary system. Its growing maturity, particularly in the “LAMP” architecture (of Linux, Apache, MYSQL and PHP technologies) has made it a viable alternative to proprietary software. Furthermore, the success of application software, such as Open Office and Mozilla’s Firefox browser, is giving Open Source software a visible presence throughout the entire organization.”

It goes on further, “Until recently, the use of Open Source software was limited by a number of factors, wit accountability and reliability near the top of the list. Many potential users feared that interest in Open Source projects might flounder and leave them without support for maintenance for their software. These fears were reason. On open source websites such as sourceforge.net – one of many repositories giving Open Source developers a central base to manage their code – there are thousands of incomplete projects that have simply been abandoned.”

“But gradually, these fears about Open Source have abated, because Open Source software is freely downloadable, support and maintenance has become the bug revenue generators for many services and software companies, big and small.”