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  • Author Author: spannerspencer
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2016 Year in Preview: The Future of Open Source

spannerspencer

Open Sourceimage

Of all our recent discussions about future tech predictions and how electronics platforms might evolve over the next 12 months., this is perhaps the most semantic.


After all, a platform, board or piece of software is either open source, or it isn't. There's not much in the way of middle ground, so the discussion almost seems void.


However, it's becoming increasingly common to find products and platforms that are mostly open source, but not entirely. Is this the way open source will go? Just keeping enough back for a company to control its own devices, and make it easier to survive the fluctuating markets? Or is that the path to the dark side?


Will Open Source Become More Open, or More Closed?


On a slightly lighter note, perhaps you'll agree with my feelings on open source, that as much as being a description of a platform's accessibility, it's also a social movement.


Some of us have a particular passion for the open source scene, and actively seek out new software and hardware not because it provides a specific function that a project needs, but because it's open source. Is that such a bad thing?


And let's say I want to join the open source scene, what's my next move? How can the scene grow and evolve and continue to encourage developers and creators to join its ranks when launching new software and hardware? What's next for open source?


Tell us all about the future of Open Source below (and what you'd like to see, as much as what we will see), and we'll reconvene this time next year to see how close we got to the mark.

  • in reply to jack.chaney56

    Yea I read that and saw so many handcuffs like OEM, etc. to not believe it.

    Clem

  • in reply to johnbeetem

    Hi John,

    Like minds.  My days at a major corporation were spent touting the exact line of thought. The problem that I had was with the raft of managers that had taken the same MBA classes and had "drunk the Koolaid".  M$ (I enjoy using that logo too), was so deeply entrenched, I could not begin to point out, getting help with network, or operational, or installation issues by posting on the message boards, and getting a hundreds of responses in less than five minutes was not as good as sitting on tier one "hot line" for an hour just to have them walk you through what you had already tried three or four times.  I also tried to point out that the Java web services package being sold to us by IBM for $1500/seat was in fact Eclipse, with Jakarta (both open source). I even set up a work station and showed it to the IT Director, and was told to get rid of it.

    The other argument related to open source is "how do I run my Windows applications?", the response we gave was to install and run, on a slower, older PC, Lotus Notes, with Linux and Wine, and get better responsiveness. They still said no. Our family expression is "don't confuse me with the facts".

     

    For Clem,

    When Windows 10 was announced, there was also a bit of fanfare that it was going to go open source. If it was just a come on from the marketing folks, and source was not made available, then I apologize for their behavior. My general opinion of marketing groups is reflected in the output of the Amiga Easter Egg. If you know, you can chuckle, if you don't then you can either find an Amiga someplace, and hunt down someone that knows how to invoke the Easter Egg, or be happy knowing that it isn't particularly kind to the marketing group.

    http://www.pcworld.com/article/2905302/open-source-windows-the-unthinkable-is-already-happening-says-microsoft.html

  • in reply to jack.chaney56

    The history of MySQL is the classic for this. What was once free and run under the GNU licensing, is now available for a minimal support fee. Xenix tried to sue Linux for encroachment until they discovered the Linux community had extracted the component, repaired it, and replaced it in their archive, under license. Microsoft has finally backed off much of their "crush, kill, destroy" tactics, and decided to open the source for a significant portion of Windows OS. Maybe because they lost their Monopoly case and ran out of appeals.

    When and where is this M$ open source Windows code?

    Clem

  • in reply to jack.chaney56

    Jack Chaney wrote:

     

    The age old question, "why do you put forth such a great effort if you never intend to get paid for it?" is the drone since the early days of GNU and the spawn of Linux. Major businesses are always talking down open source with the comment "if it breaks, who is going to support it?"

    People do get paid for open source programming.  Many companies support GNU/Linux development and pay their programmers to fix bugs and add features.  Why "give away" this work?  Because it saves money in the long run.  Sure, you're spending some resources to maintain and improve GNU/Linux, but it's a small fraction of the total cost of maintenance.  For a modest investment, you get a high-quality OS that has thousands of people testing it and finding bugs -- another huge expense you no longer need to face by yourself.

     

    People generally make money from open source indirectly.  Some companies like Red Hat make money by selling support.  Other companies make money by selling proprietary software that runs on top of GNU/Linux.  All those cheap ARM processors and development boards wouldn't be possible if there wasn't free software to run on them.  The ARM SoC makers need to write Linux device drivers and make them open source, but in return the large part of the job is done for free.  They sell more chips, and that pays for software development.

     

    For some reason FPGA vendors haven't twigged that if they allowed open-source tools for their products they could phase out their own tool development efforts and make far more money just selling silicon.

  • in reply to DAB

    Well said. Thank you!

     

    I do wish to make it clear, that I am a strong proponent of open source, and all it stands for.  I have been Microsoft intolerant for a very long time; since my first experience with the first Windows Development Kit, spending full price (around $5000USD) and finding out later there were some high speed, proprietary calls, that Microsoft applications were using, that weren't available to other users. The bad taste still has not gone away.  I am a Linux user since I got my first release of v0.95, and before Red Hat and most of the other major distributions. I tend to build Linux From Scratch (LFS) for most of my systems around the house, and only use Microsoft products when work demands it.

     

    Then along comes Raspberry Pi, and the new B2 (or is that 2 B), and my life becomes good once again. Open source hardware (I'm sure there is an asterisk there), running open source software... it doesn't get any better than that!  As long as PIs are available, I really don't see myself buying another "PC" for a very long time.

     

    OK, time to get down from my soapbox now,

     

    Jack