what is the price of open source
TRANSCRIPT
what are the costs of open
source ??Jáchym Čepický
what is are the costs price
of open source FOSS ??Jáchym Čepický
Jáchym Čepický
OSGeo.org
● Member
● Board member (2012-2015)
● Secretary
Open source software developer, contributor, user
● GRASS GIS
● PyWPS
● OpenLayers, …
● http://opengeolabs.cz
Cleerio inc.
I do Open Source and Free software!!
Started to use Linux: 2002
First contribution to GRASS GIS: 2003
What I think, I do
I do Open Source and Free software!!
Started to use Linux: 2002
First contribution to GRASS GIS: 2003
What I usually do
PyWPS
Implementation of OGC Web Processing Service in Python programming
language on server side.
● Started 2006
● About to release version 4.0 (new code base, Python3 support, …)
● 35 members of mailing list
● ± 40 contributors
● http://pywps.org
What are the costs of FOSS?
Open source and free software from point of view of
● Business
○ Using
○ Producing
● Individual developer
○ Contributing
○ Working for company, which is open source positive
● Society
○ Public sector using open source
○ Teaching open source
Open source and free software from point of view of
● Business
○ Using
○ Producing
● Individual developer
○ Contributing
○ Working for company, which is open source positive
● Society
○ Public sector using open source
○ Teaching open source
Let’s talk about costs
Fixed vs Variable Costs
Total costs = fixed + variable
Changing charging policy
→
FOSS is for free
FOSS costs
Business point of view
Producing × Using
Open source is not business model ...
Open source is development model.
Costs of using FOSS
Getting the software
Training
Management, actualisation
Licence management
Testing
...
t
c
Proprietary
FOSS
Benefits of using FOSS
● Software with low costs, lower fixed costs
● Features are are looking for can be implemented by someone else
● Support from community
● Common good
● Recruitment from community
Release early, release often!
- RERO
Release early, release often!
Upgrade early, upgrade often!
- RERO
Release early, release often!
Upgrade early, upgrade often!
Fix it early, fix it often!
- RERO
$ pip install --upgrade
$ npm install
$ apt-get update && apt-get distupgrade
...
● http://openlayers.org
● Event model change
○ The goog.events event system was replaced with our own lightweight event system. This significally reduces
the build size (#4711). Replacement of other goog.* components with ES5 features or custom code marks a
huge step towards the complete removal of the Closure Library dependency.
● Estimated costs: 6 man-months of development time
○ one developer to get our code base in line with new version
● Meanwhile in OpenLayers code base: 3.19.0 is out
Case study 1: Updating OpenLayers 3.13→3.14
Costs of Enterprise producing Open Source
● Direct costs
○ Analysis
○ Programming, development
● Indirect costs
○ Bug fixing
○ Testing
○ Documentation
○ i18n
○ Support
Costs of Enterprise producing Open Source
● Direct costs
○ Analysis
○ Programming, development
● Indirect costs
○ Bug fixing
○ Testing
○ Documentation
○ i18n
○ Support
Community helps you with some software development
costs
Bug fixing, Testing, Documentation, i18n, Support
Bulding a community
is (hard) work (costs) too...
● “Fair traid open source”
● Contribute back
○ With code
○ With money
○ With support
● Make it to your company’s culture
Being good open source citizen
I never managed to successfully adopt
FOSS way of doing software in any
company.
Open source and free software from point of view of
● Business
○ Using
○ Producing
● Individual developer
○ Contributing
○ Working for company, which is open source positive
● Society
○ Public sector using open source
○ Teaching open source
Contributing to FOSS
● Freedom
○ To study
○ To modify
○ To distribute
● Fun
● Community → Friends
Community → Friends & Fun
You are never alone with the community...
It’s about freedom
● Freedom to combine various tools → no vendor lock
● Building your community impact → chance being recognised
● Pick the right tool → do not stick to one technology, to cover it’s costs
● To leave - and still not loosing any work, you’ve done
Working for company, which is open source positive
Leave with all the tools in your Github
The bad parts
● Autonomy
○ Solve problems - Looking for mailing lists, forums, Google, asking questions
○ Not suitable for work in team - you have to learn it
● Open source/community Burn-out
FOSS burn out
Commits in last 2 years: 0 - 75/month
Variables: Work, events, family, energy, free time...
Case study: PyWPS
You can not work in more then one
garden for long time periode.
Work vs. your
project
Open source and free software from point of view of
● Business
○ Using
○ Producing
● Individual developer
○ Contributing
○ Working for company, which is open source positive
● Society
○ Public sector using open source
○ Teaching open source
Prefering FOSS in public sector
● Public control
● Lower costs
● No vendor lock
Prefering FOSS in education
● More students can get the software
● Experimenting
● Teaching generic principles, not software packages
● Autonomy, responsibility, community feeling
Case study: Open Card (Prague)
● 2006 → 2016
● 1 vendor (owned all the source code and copyrights)
● prorietary system
● 89,2 * 10^6 → 1 * 10^9
Result: It was easier to drop the project and start from scratch.
FOSS,
how can it work?
Q&A
Jáchym Čepický
@jachymc
https://github.com/jachym
Cleerio | OpenGeoLabs
Visit my GeoPython workshop!!