LPT730 Session 01 Course Introduction and Software Licensing

Session Overview  Course Introduction  Software Licensing Modes  Open Source Licensing  Fedora Linux  General Overview  GNOME Desktop

LPT730 Professor  Name: Michal Heidenreich  Contact:   Office: T2105  IRC (freenode, seneca) channel  I may be on from time to time  Please have a look at my homepage:   Policies  Timetable  Your marks

LPT730 Introduction  A hands-on introduction to Linux applications  We will work with both GUI and command-line software  We will spend majority of time installing, configuring, using and evaluating software  Recommended supplies  Your own Fedora Linux box  USB memory stick (4 GB or more)  Multimedia headset  I will be using Fedora 9 in class

LPT730 Course Outline  Official course outline can be found at:  Until the college processes latest update, a draft is available on our wiki  The outline shows a basic breakdown of topics for the entire semester  Have a look at the evaluation modes and promotion requirements  Please let me know if you have any questions

LPT730 Class Standards  You are encouraged to attend all classes  Test and exam attendance is mandatory  Labs are subject to late penalties  20% (0.2% of your grade) for each day late  Please be respectful of others  Please use proper etiquette when communicating with others

LPT730 Resources  Freely available Internet resources  fedoraproject.org  Seneca Library:  Search engines, mailing lists etc.  Open Seneca wiki:   You have access to all LUX materials and other open source initiatives at Seneca  Once you register, you will be able to add content

LPT730 Resources  The LPT730 weekly breakdown page will be the main point of contact for us:  e e  This schedule will eventually detail what is on the Course Outline  Dates for tests and assignments  Details of weekly topics  Software titles covered  Labs and assignments  Links to external resources

Software Licensing  A software license is a legal document, describing the terms of software use  Usually, users must agree to the terms upon installation of first-time use  A typical license is likely to contain following sections:  Ownership of the software  Terms of use  The type and/or number of copies that are allowed  Re-distribution rules  Liability limits

Software Licensing  In general, software today falls under one of the licensing categories  Proprietary  The user is granted the right to use the software  The publisher retains complete ownership, possibly even the physical medium such as DVD  Code is typically a trade secret  Open source  The user is granted the right to use the software  The user owns the software copy  The publisher owns the copyright  The user has the access to the source code

Software Licensing Confusion  Most people understand software as a product such as a car or a loaf of bread, that the customer owns after exchange of money  This leads to a conclusion, that the customer has a right to to whatever they please with it  Unfortunately proprietary software licensing prohibits such actions  In many ways, proprietary software is more of a service than a product  What is even more confusing, that after a user rejects the license they may not be able to return the software for a refund

Half-Way Measures  In order to encourage people to buy and use proprietary software, several schemes have been developed by the industry, including:  Bundling, for example it is difficult to buy a PC off the shelf without paying a license fee to Microsoft  Trial versions – the customer is granted the right to use the software for a limited time  Limited functionality – the software is provided for free, but it has crippled features and comes without support  Free personal use

Open Source Licensing Details  A typical open source license grants the following:  Easy access to source code  You can view and modify the software  The right to redistribution  You must redistribute under the same license  The right to use the software freely  You can make money  There are no restrictions on what you do with the software  No restrictions on others  There cannot be any discrimination

Open Source Licensing Details  The entity that oversees the Open Source Definition (OSD) is called the Open Source Initiative (OSI) -  OSI is a tax-exempt public benefit corporation based in California  To date (Sept 2008) has approved 72 open source licenses  Most notable licenses are the Mozilla Public License (MPL), GNU General Public License (GPL), Apache License and Educational Community License  Many licenses come in more than one variety

Open Software Development  Open source software development describes a development methodology, where... 1.The software is released under an open source license 2.Users actively develop and test the software 3.The development usually follows a spiral/incremental pattern 4.Versions are released as often and as early as possible  Most notable open source software includes Linux, Apache and Firefox

Fedora Linux  Fedora is a free, general-purpose, Linux-based operating system released under the Educational Community License  The OS is backed by a repository of over 10,000 binary software packages  Red Hat Corp. is the corporate entity that sponsors Fedora  Red Hat offers the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) which is a commercial derivative of Fedora  Fedora follows a rigid 6-month release schedule, where a particular version is supported for about a year

GNOME Desktop  GNOME is a free desktop software (GUI interface) for Linux and Unix  GNOME is the default desktop manager for Fedora  Most desktop managers, including GNOME offers an experience similar to MS Windows  A desktop, including shortcut panels, clock etc.  An application menu  File-system navigation tools  System administration