Considering Open Source? Is developing an open source project right for you?

3 Brief History of Open Source 1950's and 1960's: Software is distributed with source code and without restrictions in forums like the IBM SHARE or the DEC DECUS user groups, or the ``Algorithms'' section of the ``Communications of the ACM'' journal. 1972: Source code is freely distributed in academic circles. Example: MIT, circa 1972, HACKMEM (PDP-6/10 assembly language). 1984: GNU Project begins. Developers begin creating a wide range of Unix- like tools, including for instance an editor (Emacs) and a compiler (GCC). 1985: MIT based X Consortium distributes the X Window System as free software covered by one of the less restrictive open source licences. 1989: Cygnus, the first commercial company devoted to provide commercial support for GNU software and open source software in general, is funded Oct: Linus Torvalds publicly releases the source code for his Unix-like kernel, which is named Linux Jan: Netscape declares its intent to release the source code for its Navigator browser 1998 Aug: Sourceforge launches 1998 Dec: VASoftware IPO

Open Source Is Not New We have been trading code since the first computers There were code catalogs you could order from Some magazines had source code with barcodes USENET was a wealth of source code 4

Advantages of OSS More people contributing code –More heads are better than one –Allows people to do what they are best at Development resources you couldn’t afford to pay –Some projects get tons of developers Faster development times –More coders = faster development Better peer code review –Always good to have multiple people looking at code 5

Disadvantages of OSS Code control –Its hard to give up control –Can’t guarantee coder’s skills Project organization –Managing a large project can take a lot of time Task delegation –Some people only like to work on the “fun projects” Project guidance –In-fighting of developers can lead to conflicts 6

Potholes in the roadmap Managing user expectations –Many users have unreasonable demands Community building –A large open source project is only as good as the community of users and developers –Building a usable website is a difficult project Providing support –Forum postings –IRC channels –Paid Support 7

Where can it go? Commercial Angles –mySQL –SugarCRM –Red Hat –Asterisk –trixbox –PHP Non-Commercial –Apache –CentOS –Python As a project matures, a commercial angle is usually appropriate in order to support the user base 8

Is Open Source Right For You? It really depends on your needs and goals There are definitely pros and cons of opening your project or being a developer on an existing project If you are looking at helping with a project –How long has it been around –Who is controlling it –How well does everyone communicate Remember, you are making a big commitment, so know who you are getting involved with 9

Thank You Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoyed learning a little more about open source development Kerry Garrison Sr. Product Manager, trixbox 10