WIPO International Seminar on
IP and Development
On the Merits of the Open Source
Model
Sherif El-Kassas
Department of Computer Science
The American University in Cairo
Outline
• Introduction
• Users’ perspective
–
–
–
–
–
Market share
Reliability
Performance
Security
Total cost of ownership
• Developer and Firm perspective
– Work models
– Strategic motivations
Geneva, May 2-3, 2005
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Introduction
• Open Source Initiative: software is considered “open
source” if its distribution terms adhere to:
1. Free redistribution;
2. The distribution must include the source code, and allow
distribution in source code as well as compiled form;
3. Derived Works: The license must allow modifications and
derived works;
4. Integrity of The Source Code;
5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups;
6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor;
7. Distribution of License;
8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product;
9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software; and
10.License Must Be Technology-Neutral.
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opensource.org/docs/def_print.php
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Examples of Open Source Licenses
“Basics of Open Source Software Markets and Business Models,”
infonomics.nl/FLOSS/report/reportPart3_basics_oss_markets_and_business_models.htm
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Software Examples
• Operating systems: Linux, FreeBSD
• Specialized servers: Apache, Sendmail,
Samba, OpenLDAP
• Tools: GCC, Perl, PHP, XML processors
• Office: OpenOffice, StarOffice,
• Middlewares: JONAS
• DBMS: MySQL, PostgreSQL
• Graphics: GIMP
• Security: Nessus, nmap, Snort, GPG,
OpenSSL, OpenSSH
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Outline
• Users’ perspective
– Market share
– Reliability
– Performance
– Security
– Total cost of ownership
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Market Share
• Market share or whether a product “is
main stream” is an important decision
making criteria
• “mainstream”  more likely it is to
find:
– trained staff
– product related resources
– reduces associated risks
–…
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news.netcraft.com/archives/2005/01/01/january_2005_web_server_survey.html
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2004 www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=51201599&tid=5979
Reliability
• Reliability is an important criterion when
selecting mission critical software
• There is some evidence that suggests
that open source software offers better
reliability
• It maybe attributed to the development
model of open source software
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Failure Rates as Measured by Fuzz Tests
http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html
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Performance
• Performance tests are often
controversial due to the many factors
and assumptions that affect the results
• This often results in conflicting results
and conclusions
• There have been successes for both
open and closed source software
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Security
• The fact that a program is open source does
not make it automatically more secure
• “Public security is always more secure than
proprietary security. It's true for cryptographic
algorithms, security protocols, and security
source code. […] open source isn't just a
business model; it's smart engineering practice”
---Bruce Schneier, Crypto-Gram Newsletter, September1999
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Total Cost of Ownership
• Important measure and decision making tool
• Dependant on needs & environment
• There have been numerous studies with mixed and
conflicting results
• Some important cases show that open source
software has resulted in significant cost reduction
• every user considering open source solutions should
conduct their own TCO study
• “[…] the long run total cost of operations (TCO) for a
suite of proprietary software must necessarily be
greater than that for an equivalent suite of free
software […].”
--- Brendan Scott,
www.members.optushome.com.au/brendanscott/papers/freesoftwaretco150
702.html
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Outline
• Developer and Firm perspective
– Work models
– Strategic motivations
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Work Models
• The distributors
• The software producers
• Service providers
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Distributors
• Firms that provide access to source
code and open software products
• May sell CDs and customized versions
of their products
• offering various update and support
services to enterprise clients
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faculty.washington.edu/sandeep/d/bazaar.pdf 18
The Software Producer Model
• GPL vs. Non-GPL
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faculty.washington.edu/sandeep/d/bazaar.pdf 20
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faculty.washington.edu/sandeep/d/bazaar.pdf 21
Service Providers
• Depends on selling support and
upgrade services
• Very important as a complement for the
other work models
• The sale of open source software alone
may not be enough to sustain a firm
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faculty.washington.edu/sandeep/d/bazaar.pdf 23
Strategic motivations
• some firm have used open source to
influence their standing in other areas of the
software and IT business
• Example:
– SAP releasing is SAP DB database product as open
source enables it to reduce the over all price of its
Enterprise Resource Planning application may
enable it to compete more effectively.
– IBM may benefit from open source models to
provide unified access to its diverse hardware
platform which may lead to increased hardware
sales.
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Conclusions
• The open source model has established itself as an
important and successful alternative to proprietary
development models
• Users should consider open source platforms when
making IT related decisions
• It may not be always possible to rely entirely on open
source software
– E.g., due to: availability, compatibility with existing closed
systems, or legal requirements
• Open source software seems to lowers the entry bar
• it makes sense to consider basing local development
efforts on a suitable open source model
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Questions?
Links:
sherif@aucegypt.edu
http://www.cs.aucegypt.edu/~skassas/wipo/
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http://banners.noticiasdot.com/termometro/boletines/docs/paises/
europa/ue/2001/ida/OSS_Fact_sheet-market_structure.pdf
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IT Vendors
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HW/SW vendors supporting
Linux
• IBM
– Linux on Intel servers, mid-range AS/400
(iSeries) and mainframes
– should unify IBM heterogeneous platforms
• HP
– Linux in addition to HP-UX and Windows
– develop on Linux, deploy on Linux, Windows and
HP-UX
http://www.idei.asso.fr/Commun/Conferences/Internet/OSS2002/
Papiers/Valduriez.PDF
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SW vendors
• Netscape
• Mozilla.org to manage development
• NPL = compromise GPL/BSD
• sale server software, services and content (with
AOL)
• Oracle
– commitment to Linux
– high-value proprietary software
http://www.idei.asso.fr/Commun/Conferences/Internet/OSS2002/
Papiers/Valduriez.PDF
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Service vendors
• Linux distributors
– RedHat, Caldera, SuSe, Conectiva,
TurboLinux, MandrakeSoft, etc
– Sale customer support
– UnitedLinux.com to unify the various
distributions
• Application Service Providers
– ASP1
– OSS and proprietary software as service
http://www.idei.asso.fr/Commun/Conferences/Internet/OSS2002/
Papiers/Valduriez.PDF
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Is it a Paradigm Shift?
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Mainframes
P Zero
OO
Client/
Server
Open
Source
Wireless
?
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WebTech
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“As the rule goes, when a
paradigm shift occurs,
everyone goes back to zero,
which brings people back onto a
level playing field or the same
starting block.”
http://www.transknowformance.com/page.cfm?na
me=aprilnewsletter
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Conclusions
• Is it a paradigm shift?
• It will not totally replace what we know
• But we can benefit from it greatly in:
– CS and IT education
– Research
– IT security
• Others are building a new software (and
copyright industry) based on new
principals!
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Questions?
Links:
sherif@aucegypt.edu
http://www.cs.aucegypt.edu/~skassas/wipo/
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