Open source: flavour of the month

By Sam Varghese
Friday, 16 February 2007 04:05

Opinion and Analysis

One sure way to catch the eye in the IT marketplace these days is by announcing that you are "going open source" - whatever that means.

In one of the latest such happenings, CNET reports that a company named Aras, which develops software entirely using Microsoft technologies released the code to a design application.

Sounds a bit funny, as though a liquor outlet were preaching about responsible drinking, but open source seems to be a magic term when it comes to getting some attention. It also seems to be a nice way of getting rid of possible commercial competition.

There is one catch - many people have come to associate the term "open source" with better software, software that is created with the profit motive being just one of several. Hence, it is assumed that the software will not be a dud. Third-rate software can go open source but it won't gain any traction.

The whole idea of open source was born because of the confusion associated with a term like free software. Tell someone that something is free and that it also costs money and it is bound to confuse them. The term open source was born in 1998 following the decision by Netscape Corporation to release the source code to its browser. It gave companies a way to profit from free software without having to conform to the four freedoms which were deemed mandatory for free software. In the nine years since, there has been much bastardising of the term.

Some companies develop their own licences which are not exactly kosher when compared with the Open Source Definition. But the public knows little about the details of licensing, so anything with the words "open" in it is interpreted as meaning "good". Even Microsoft has started using the word more frequently these days. Maybe they could hire someone like Donald Rumsfeld to help in the process of obfuscation.