Appendix B: Summary of Well Known Open Source Software Projects

Appendix B. Summary of Well known OSS projects

There are literally thousands of open source applications (see http://freshmeat.net), and the number reaches tens of thousands if you include libraries, tools and utilities. Many of them provide essential parts of the Linux operating system, others are applications of various sorts that work primarily on Linux, and a number are cross-platform, or written specifically for Windows or Macintosh platforms. We think it would be useful to describe a small number of these applications (as well as Linux in general) so that it is possible to see the wide range of applications, and the way these have evolved.

Linux

Any operating system is made up of 3 basic components: a kernel, libraries , and tools and utilities (really, applications) that depend on the other components. Linux is, most accurately, just a kernel. Although Linux is generally thought of as an operating system, and that is a perfectly fine way to think and talk about it, at a more fundamental level, it is just a kernel.

Linux is a UNIX variant started in 1992 as a project by the Finnish graduate student, Linus Torvalds. It grew slowly until about 1996 or so, when corporations started to deploy it in their data centers and networks for particular tasks, primarily at first, for web servers. Since fairly early on, Linux has had multiple distributions, which are ways in which Linux and associated tools and applications are packaged. Some of these distributions are commercial (such as RedHat, SuSe and Lindows), others are non-commercial (such as Debian or Gentoo).

Distributions are different for a variety of reasons. Some (like Debian and Gentoo) are focused on a particular social or philosophical point of view (free software) and others are focused on the commercial use of Linux in the corporate sector (RedHat). A major difference between distributions is package management – the way in which the software is packaged and installed. There are two basic types of package management in Linux: RPM (RedHat Package Management) or deb (Debian package management). These are ways in which binary and source versions of software are packaged and installed. Most distributions use RPM (RedHat, SuSe, Mandrake-Linux), some use deb (Debian, Lindows, Knoppix). Others use their own package management (Gentoo has it's own system), or there is none, and all software is compiled from source code when installed (Slackware).

At this point, the most popular distribution in the US is RedHat, and it has become the de-facto Linux standard distribution. It is easy to install, most software is packaged for RedHat, and RedHat as a company has many different kinds of support services available.

As we mentioned above – Linux is most accurately just a kernel. Kernel development has its own process, still largely directed by Linus Torvalds, but hundreds of developers are involved in the effort. Kernels are then incorporated into Linux distributions by the people involved in those distributions. Kernel development is critical to keep pace with new peripheral technologies, new processors, new platforms, etc. Linux kernel development is healthy and vibrant, as well as incorporates cutting-edge technology.

A lawsuit has been filed by SCO (Santa Cruz Operation) on a number of companies regarding code used in Linux. See http://www.nosi.net/sco.html for more information on NOSI’s opinion on the impact of the SCO lawsuit on the implementation of Linux in the nonprofit sector.

In the past two to three years, Linux has become a mainstream server operating system. IBM had pledged to spend $1 billion on Linux in 2001, and many large companies are deploying Linux in large numbers. Many manufacturers of servers in particular (IBM and Dell, as well as others) sell servers with Linux installed. Many for profit companies see Linux as more robust, cost effective and secure than Microsoft operating systems. At present, Linux has about 27% (http://librenix.com/?inode=784) of the server market share (although many people feel this is a low estimate, since many companies install Linux themselves, or repurpose older machines to use Linux).

Linux has not, however, yet become mainstream on the desktop. Less than 9% of all desktop computers sold have Linux on them, and that percentage is not predicted to go much beyond 10% in the next few years. Even the introduction of the very inexpensive Lindows computers from WalMart hasn't made much of a dent.

Apache

Linux is, arguably, the best known OS software project. Apache is arguably the most used. According to Netcraft (http://www.netcraft.com - the best known metric of web server statistics), 63% of the websites on the internet use Apache as their web server software (the software that responds to requests), and the percentage is still growing. The closest competitor is MS IIS server, which is currently at 26% (and dropping). Apache is considered the best webserver available. It can run on any flavor of Unix (including, of course, Linux) as well as Windows. If there was ever an example of a solid, popular open source product, Apache is it. And, like most open source software, it is free.

Apache started out quite slowly (it got it's name from being “a-patchy-server” - a set of patches to the early webserver by NCSA). Apache continues to be developed, and version 2.0, which contains a very large host of major enhancements was released last year. Apache is supported by the nonprofit organization, the Apache Foundation, and has many programmers still working on the project. In addition, Apache has other open source web server projects that interface with the Apache server (like Tomcat, for Java Server Pages), so it is a very active and dynamic group of developers.

Open Office

Open Office is the open source version of Sun's product, Star Office, which they bought. They created the Open Office project, which contains most of the features (primarily missing is the database) of the Star Office suite. It is a full-featured, cross-platform (Windows, Linux and Macintosh) office suite, with word processing, spreadsheet, presentation software and many other tools (like an HTML editor, a formula editor). This booklet was largely written using Open Office on Linux). Unlike many open source projects, this was an example of a well-developed proprietary package, that became open source. It is not very common, but it does happen, and happens increasingly often. Sun has put a fair amount of resources behind both Star Office and Open Office, with the idea that they will become alternatives to Microsoft's office suite. Open Office is arguably the most well known OS desktop application.

Mozilla

Mozilla is one of a number of open source web browsers. It forms the foundation of a number of browsers, and has a very large number of interesting technological inncvations. It is available for Linux, Windows and Macintosh. Mozilla has a very long and illustrious history. It has it's origins in the first graphical web browser, called Mosaic. Mozilla is the open source version of Netscape Communicator, although Netscape does have quite a bit of proprietary code. Unlike Netscape, which AOL (who owns it) terminated development of, Mozilla will continue to be developed under the auspices of the Mozilla Foundation.