[Edu-sig] linux essay

[Kirby Urner]

> Another thing: I think you should mention that even for those who still
> refuse to substitute Windows for a GNU/Linux system, most free
> programs can also run on top of Windows. For instance, they can use

I don't know if I'd say "most" here -- but "some" for sure, Python being a
premier example.

Indeed, Python fills a niche in Windows, as VB is a crummy language, and the
DOS-based batch language is not powerful at all.  With Mark Hammond's Win32
extensions in particular, Windows users now have a true scripting language
with its own shell mode -- something *nixers have taken for granted forever.

So here's a case where a closed source operating system has been
substantially improved with an open source technology.

> free browsers such as Mozilla and Phoenix instead of Explorer, free
> Office suits such as OpenOffice, instead of MSOffice, Gimp instead of
> Photoshop, etc.

It's often the case that closed source proprietary software has more
features and the people who buy it make plenty of money with it -- enough to
easily justify the cost of ownership.  GIMP is not a PhotoShop equivalent,
as the GIMP developers will be the first to admit (which doesn't mean it's
not great software -- it is).

And so it works both ways:  lots of proprietary, closed source software is
run on top of Linux in this world, not just on top of Windows.  We shouldn't
spread the myth that, once you've moved to an open source operating system,
that everything you do after that is open source.  Not every C++ program
compiled with gcc has to be GPLed (that's not a requirement for using gcc).


Nor does executable Python have to have any source code accompanying it
(plus a lot of Python stuff isn't meant for distribution -- as Eric Raymond
points out, tons of real world working software is custom in-house stuff,
not any kind of commercial "product").  I've spent many years as a
programmer, writing thousands of lines of code, and yet nothing that I've
coded has ever been sold to anyone else in a shrink-wrapped box.  This is
very typical.

> (see http://gnuwin.epfl.ch/). Replacing proprietary programs by free
> ones, in a Windows system, can be a first step to make a transition to
> free software. Once people get used to those free programs, they will
> not notice much difference when Windows is replaced by GNU/Linux.
> 
> Regards,
> Jaime

I'm very much in favor of open source software and am always glad when it
proves itself as capable or more so, than the closed source competition.  

But I don't expect all software to ever be open, not even all operating
systems (many of which run on devices other than desktops or laptops).  

Again, the analogy with schooling works:  whereas algebra is in the public
domain and anyone is free to teach it or learn it, sometimes a new algorithm
is kept under wraps for proprietary advantage, e.g. the patent on RSA only
expired recently.  

The teacher may have some tricks for making algebra seem easier that
students won't be able to replicate either -- because the focus of the class
is on algebra, not the teacher's techniques.  In other words, a teacher's
style remains "proprietary" in the sense that teaching skills don't always
easily transmit.

IBM, a heavy investor in Linux, still expects to be a major player in the
proprietary market.  The commercial success of Linux has everything to do
with big companies realizing that open source does not force them to
surrender their right to keep secrets (only some loser companies like SCO
couldn't see how to turn a profit without selfishly and erroneously claiming
exclusive private ownership over ideas that belonged to the Unix community).

Finally, in practice what happens to a lot of GPL code is it gets forked
internally to a company and moved into proprietary service.  It's not shared
outside the company, so this is not strictly speaking against the license
(when you play with GPLed code in on your own computer, you're not compelled
to share these changes -- which may have broken it or made it worse).  And I
agree with Jon Udell who writes about this phenomenon in 'Open Source
Citizenship' in Infoworld (10.27.03), that this is often a shortsighted
approach, that giving back to the community is about enlightened self
interest.

Kirby