Open-Source talk

Cercle Suédois - Paris

October 16th, 2003

Tristan Nitot – tristan@nitot.com

Mozilla Contributor – mozilla.org

OpenWebGroup project Leader – openweb.eu.org

http://standblog.com/

OpenSource: a Definition

Original vision of software

Notion coming from Science and knowledge: the more you share, the more the value increases.

Freedom to share, distribute and contribute, with the program source.

See gnu.org and opensource.org

Definition:

1. The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
2. The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
3. The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
4. The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source codeis a precondition for this.

A few examples

On the server:

• Bind : reference implementation for DNS service
• Apache : leading Web Server – 64% marketshare
• GNU/Linux : used by Google

On the desktop:

• OpenOffice.org: free alternative to MS-Office
• Mozilla: fast, secure and comfy browser
• The Gimp: free alternative to Photoshop
• GNU/Linux: free alternative to MS-Windows.

The Mozilla effort as an illustration of the Open-Source Movement

What is Mozilla, the product?

A fast, secure, advanced Web browser, with e-mail client and html editor.

A few features:

Web browser:

• Tabbed browsing
• Pop-up blocker
• Advanced security (password, cookies and download management)...

Messaging client:

• Junk mail control: no more spam!
• Multiple accounts
• Label and mail views, for easier management

Award-winner

• Best of 2003 - PC-World, July 2003
• Notre préféré: Mozilla - SVM, October 2003
• Editor's Choice Award for Best Web Browser - LinuxJournal Magazine (July issue)
• eWEEK Labs found the new features in Mozilla 1.4 ... to be remarkable improvements that enhance what was already the best browser option out there. - eWeek
• Mozilla.org's upcoming new products could make Microsoft's offerings look very shabby indeed- The Guardian

The Mozilla organization

• Mozilla.org: the engineering group. One of the biggest open-source projects in size after the Linux Kernel.
• Mozilla Foundation: marketing, sales, management.

Mozilla.org people

Drivers:

technical leadership and guidance

Module owners:

leading the development of a module of code

Super-reviewers:

ensuring quality and efficiency of overall product

Engineers:

400 engineers have been granted CVS access

150 engineers check in code every month (some are the gateway for many more engineers).

Nightly build testers:

10 000 testers.

More than 40,000 total bug reporters

about 75-100 bugs get filed per day.

~2,000 have been granted advanced bug update rights.

Milestone testers:

500 000 testers (grown from 100 000 in 2001)

Contributor profiles

• Students / academics
• Research engineers
• Sponsored engineers (Sun, IBM, Red Hat, Nokia, Cygnus...)
• Benevolent contributors

Mozilla.org tools

Tinderbox / Bonsai / CVS

Testing changes. If they fail, who did commit these changes into CVS?

LXR

Browsing the source

Bugzilla

Bug report database. 200 000+ bugs reported so far.

Conclusion

Open-source is a viable complement to buying licenses to use proprietary software.

Pros

Security.

Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow. So far, Open-Source software has been much superior in terms of security. (Apache vs. IIS, Linux vs. Windows, Mozilla vs. MSIE).

Independent of software vendor

if you're not happy with the feature set, edit the source-code! (Or hire someone to do it...)

Future-proof solution

Tendency to use open-standards, so that documents will remain usable in the future. In any case, the software will remain open. (This would not happen if the vendor goes bankrupt).

License cost may be zero

(free as speech, not free as beer). Let's not forget that licensing costs are marginal in a large IT project.

Cons

Need for training

(as for any software)

Need for technical support

many open-source projects have a commercial entity that offers such a service

Addendum: Learning more...

About Mozilla project :

http://www.nitot.com/mozilla/portugal-join2003/slide00.html

http://www.mozilla.org/

About Free Software:

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

About Open Source Initiative

http://www.opensource.org/

The Cathedral and the Bazaar

Daily news about Free software, Web browsers, Web standards and Web Accessibility:

http://standblog.com/