Free/Open Source Software and Libraries
Eric Goldhagen
What is Free/Open Source Software?
Why Should Librarians Care About Software Licenses?
What is the difference between Free Speech and Free Beer?
GNU and LINUX
Richard Stallman GNU (GNU Not Unix)
Started writing free software utilities for unix in 1984
Stallman personally wrote an impressive amount of software
Founded GNU and Free Software Foundation http://gnu.org http://www.fsf.org
By 1991 GNU created all the elements of a free OS except a kernel
Linus Torvalis Linux
Wrote linux kernel in 1991 Linux was released under GPL, the software
license written by Richard Stallman
Important Terms:
Software is written as text (source code) Software is most often distributed as an
application (binary) that runs in a specific operating system and type of hardware (architecture)
Source code is modified (compiled) by another program (compiler) to create a binary
Free software and open source are in most cases equivalent and may be found abbreviated as FOSS, F/OSS or FLOSS
What Do You Mean Free?Free as in Speech
(always)Free as in Beer
(sometimes)
More extensive definition at http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php
Free to read source code and evaluate it for security and other reasons
Free to modify source code for your own use
Free to distribute your modifications Free to anyone for any use
Freedom Backed by License
The freedoms associated with F/OSS are protected by software licenses
There are many different licenses for F/OSS GPL (GNU General Public License)
Strong copyleft license, all code modifications must be released
BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) Permissive and non-copyleft, allows for easier
bundling of f/oss with commercial tools. LGPL (GNU Lesser GPL)
Compromise between GPL and BSD-like licenses. Not a strong copyleft license, because it permits linking with non-free modules.
See http://fsf.org for full list of free/open source licenses
Why Should Libraries Care About Software Licenses?
Discussions of software license, fair useand copyright overlap
Creative Commons License for content is an outgrowth of F/OSS
End User License Agreements (EULA's) limit rights
Free/open source licenses protect freedom and rights
You never own commercial software Public access can be restricted by EULA's Software licenses are a drain on limited library
budgets Knowledge as information vs. knowledge as
property
Benefits of Using F/OSS
Collaboration with other groups Tools designed with you in mind Localization of Economy Sharing of resources with other groups Seeing a connection between services
provided at libraries and the tools used to facilitate those services
Open Standards No vendor lock-in
Before you jump...
Understand that there is a difference between buying a product from a vendor and hiring a group to modify/customize F/OSS
Think about process not product Treat your F/OSS team like partners not
vendors Make a wishlist, not an RFP Take time to evaluate tools before
implementing active community frequent patches response to non-developers
What FLOSS to Use?
Type of Software Proprietary F/OSSWeb Browser Internet Explorer Mozilla Firefox; Opera
Word processing Microfoft Word Open Office Writer
Presentations Microsoft PowerPoint Open Office Impress
Spreadsheets Microsoft Excel Open Office Calc
Database Oracle; ms sql server MySQL PostgreSQL
Graphics editing Adobe Photoshop GIMP
Desktop Publishing Quark Xpress Scribus
Instant Messaging AIM GAIM
Finances Quicken GnuCash; TurboCash
PDF Creation Adobe Acrobat PDF Creator; Ghostscript
Audio Editing ProTools Audacity
Flowcharting Visio Dia
Vector Graphics Adobe Illustrator Sodipodi
Email client Outlook Thunderbird; kMail
Tools: CMS'sContent Management
Systems Allows for easy access to add
content/pages and edit existing content Can allow for tracking changes to
content over time Allow different users/groups to have
different information within one site Many CMS's also allow for community
interaction/comments/blogs Examples of popular F/OSS CMS's
Drupal; Joomla; Slashcode; Bricolage; Plone Working example: http://
Tools: BugTracking
Allows for input of problems with a site or project
Sorting by priority and severity of problems
Ability to assign and track progress Common tools
Bugzilla Mantis
Tools: Project and Task Management
Similar in concept to bugtracking but designed for project management and non-technical use
Ability to track all tasks for a project Users get tasks and deadlines assigned
and log hours and progress Reminders for deadlines and overdue
tasks Common Tools
WebCollab NetOffice dotProject
Tools: Constituent and Donor Management (CRM) Allows for tracking organizational contact
with members and donors Available tools
CiviCRM Ebase SugarCRM
Tools: Wiki for collaborative authoring Wikis differ from other types of websites
because they allow for freeform editing of all content
Best suited for collaborative authoring of documents like software manuals or organizational policies
What wikis do people use MediaWiki Twiki PhpWiki Moin moin
Tools: Blogs
Blogs allow for an easy way of involving a community in a site
Can be a single author or group Blogs tend to be personal or opinion
rather than informational
Blog your experiences and lessons learned so others can gain from what you discovered. (also search your error messages or problems to find such content)
Tools: Tagging and shared content sites
Allows for freeform assigning of tags or keywords to any content
Sharable via web for others to see what you found and tagged
Used in conjunction with sites that are user created content
Tagging sites Delicious Tagzania Flickr
Summary
Software licenses/EULA's restrict fair-use Commercial software is never owned, but leased Commercial software is guided by the desires
of the marketing department; F/OSS is guided by the needs of the users and the whims of the programmers
F/OSS creates a dynamic where collectivity and competition are not mutually exclusive concepts
F/OSS creates a culture where contribution and participation are valued over ownership.
Filling in the Blanks
Free Software Foundation http://fsf.org GNU http://gnu.org Open Source Initiative
http://www.opensource.org NOSI (Nonprofit Open Source Initiative)
http://nosi.net Linux distributions
Debian http://debian.org Redhat http://redhat.com Fedora http://fedora.redhat.com Ubuntu http://ubunto.com Gnoppix http://gnoppix.org
Where to find f/oss Sourceforge http://sourceforge.net Freshmeat http://freshmeat.net
On line Resources for More Information on the Topics Covered
Credits Presentation created with Open Office 1.1, updated
with Open Office 2.0, most recent update with NeoOffice2
Created using a salvaged computer running Debian LINUX; modified on a mac running Ubuntu LINUX
Presentation theme distributed free with Open Office 1.1
On line sources used for this presentation are all listed on the “Filling in the blanks” page
This presentation covered by the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
