Overview of Free/Open Source Software for Librarians

Eric Goldhageneric@openflows.org

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)

● 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

More extensive definition at http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php

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 Librarians 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

Radical Reference: ToolsDrupal for Website

● Content Management System– Provides web interface to create, modify and otherwise

maintain content on the website● Modular and extensible

– Over 200 code modules exist to add features and content types to the system

● 100% Free / released under GPL– LAMP (linux, apache, mysql, [php | python | perl])

● Large international development community– Over 1000 developers over the past 5 years have added

code– Over 200 developers have added code in the past 6

months● Download and find out more at http://drupal.org

Radical Reference: Tools Lightningbug for Reference

● GPL / LAMP● Developed for the counterconvention.org site ● Designed to facilitate collaboration in vetting site content● Modified to work in the context of

answering reference questions● Some of those changes were added to the distributed

code● Small development community

– Very responsive to users of system– Code under active development with fixes and new

features being added on a regular basis● Available at http://lightningbug.sourceforge.net/

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.

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

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

● Created using a salvaged computer running Debian 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