Hey FOSS project, what's your pedigree?

By Sam Varghese
Thursday, 19 June 2008 21:23

Opinion and Analysis

Organic open source. Non-organic open source. Genetically modified free software. None of these are phrases that are in common usage but exploring what they mean is an interesting exercise.
MySQL's Brian Aker used the first two terms when responding to a post by Linux kernel guru Ted T'so about what Sun was trying to do with its OpenSolaris project. I made up the third one myself! And whatever follows is my take on these terms.

How does one define organic open source? Well, the best example would be the Linux kernel which grew from a hacker's itch to become the centre of a pretty big computing environment.

Linus Torvalds did not start writing code because some company or the other asked him to; he was trying to create some tools for himself and ended up sharing it with world + dog. The sharing proved to be the strength of the project; it was predicated upon the principle that you could take, add and give away; if you did give it away then whatever you had added would have to be available to all and sundry. Simple principle and bloody efficient at controlling the selfishness inherent in the human race.

Importantly, in the case of the Linux kernel, there was no outsider pushing for this or that. It was all driven by Torvalds. And as he accepted ideas from others and incorporated them into his project, it grew by leaps and bounds. One doesn't really need to list the achievements of the project as it is something akin to a mosquito these days - ubiquitous.

The kernel project has, in many respects, retained the form and structure which it had in its nascent days. There is no managing director, no chief executive, no executive committee, no governing board. There is no constitution.