Your Opinions Wanted!

[spockofborg]

I'm a student in college and for english we have to make a zine. The subject of my zine is Open Source Software, where I will be highlighting the differences between Open and Closed source, as well as Free vs. Commercial licensing, and will also include tips and resources to guide new users on the path to libre software. What I need from all you wonderful people is help with the interview part of the zine.

What's unique about this school is that we happen to have the WORLDS largest collection of zines.. so your answers will live on long after this semester and even long after these forums are archived; they could possibly be looked at by historians many hundreds of years from now.

I have come up with 9 questions on the subject of software licensing. PLEASE feel free to include comments outside of these questions.

Thanks in advance,
-Kent

1. what is your involvement with software; i.e. - are you a an enduser, support professional, programmer, etc.

2. What do you feel are the most important aspects of Free Open Source Software.

3. If Microsoft gave Windows away for free, would you use it?

4. If Windows was open source, that is, there were many flavors produced by many groups, like there are many distributions of Linux, would you use it?

5. If Linux was wholly owned by Microsoft (or another big, possibly evil corporation) , instead of the kernel being Linus' and the rest being GNU, would you still use it?

6. Do you think more people would buy an iPod/iPhone/iPad/MacBook/iMac if Apple removed every last proprietary part of those products and let the end user have actual complete control over thier own property?

7. Do you think OS X or iOS would be better off released under GPL instead of being proprietary?

8. Do you think the Android OS would have been better off released under GPLv2 instead of the ASLv2 (Apache Software License)?

9. If you could ask any of the these questions to anyone, who would you ask? What answer(s) would you expect?


PS - I've been using Sabayon on this old dell C840 for over 2 years now, and I love it! Sabayon is Awesome!

[Fitzcarraldo]

What's unique about this school is that we happen to have the WORLDS largest collection of zines.. so your answers will live on long after this semester and even long after these forums are archived; they could possibly be looked at by historians many hundreds of years from now.

Yeah, right! As if.

1. what is your involvement with software; i.e. - are you a an enduser, support professional, programmer, etc.

End-user.

2. What do you feel are the most important aspects of Free Open Source Software.

Firstly, the enthusiasm and drive of the developers to develop and improve their product. Secondly, the transparency of the software, i.e. the source code being available for scrutiny and modification by others (including forking, if necessary).

3. If Microsoft gave Windows away for free, would you use it?

I use it as it is, a) because it is ubiquitous and b) because some software runs on it that does not run in Linux. So, yes, I would use it if it were free-of-charge and remained the most-widely used and supported OS.

4. If Windows was open source, that is, there were many flavors produced by many groups, like there are many distributions of Linux, would you use it?

I might, I might not. It would depend on the quality of the 'flavour'.

5. If Linux was wholly owned by Microsoft (or another big, possibly evil corporation) , instead of the kernel being Linus' and the rest being GNU, would you still use it?

Yes.

6. Do you think more people would buy an iPod/iPhone/iPad/MacBook/iMac if Apple removed every last proprietary part of those products and let the end user have actual complete control over thier own property?

Yes, but only because more people would develop for the platform.

7. Do you think OS X or iOS would be better off released under GPL instead of being proprietary?

To be honest, I don't care as I'm not interested in OS X or iOS: my present OS (Linux) does all I need on the Desktop and my present smartphone OS (Android) does all I need on my mobile phone.

8. Do you think the Android OS would have been better off released under GPLv2 instead of the ASLv2 (Apache Software License)?

To be honest, I don't care. But I am glad that Google has released Android under some form of open-source licence.

9. If you could ask any of the these questions to anyone, who would you ask? What answer(s) would you expect?

I'd ask the IT managers and directors of corporations. The answers to most questions would be "I don't care whether or not it is open-source as long as the total cost of ownership (i.e. including support) is as low as possible and it is reliable". Or something like that.

[alonsoty]

1. Definitely I'm a end user, I do scientific computing in the field of electronics design and CAD but with third party and commercial software... Surely I'm not a programmer.

2. I personally had to deal with at least three basic classifications using professional tools:
a. Open Source Software (basically GPL license).
b. Free but Licensed Software (not Open Source, some code is obfuscated).
c. Licensed Commercial Software.

In my field of work is easy to come across examples of "wild copy", but basically I think that the 'licensed technology' (even if very sophisticated and when it involved a considerable conceptual effort) can be greatly improved with the help of all if it were freely distributed (think about research in the university...).
Among other things, this does not seem even a possible conflict with the commercial policy of any company because there are several open source licenses...
you only have to understand what you really want to sell... the whole idea, the implementation, the finished product or the technology that has allowed his realization.

So, the aspect that stands out for many, will surely be the commercial one, overshadowing by that of the real growth given by the contribution it can make each individual user.

3. I also use Windows regularly, I do not think the problem is reduced to only the purchase price of personal license.
As I said above the situation would remain the same even if it were free of charge but the real point it's his Closed Source.

4. Windows already has differents parts produced by many developers team and incorporates parts of open source technology like BSD TCP/IP...
I think the problem is to define what it means to truly "Open Source" for you.
One thing I notice with much regret is the fact that in some cases the development of Open Source does not always respond to focused improvement of the software because often many resources (and effort) are dispersed in different directions.
Although conceptually this is a great advantage because it allows to show different ways of implementing the same thing... opening alternative ways.

5. It seems difficult to occur this scenario, as well as maybe technically impossible.
Maybe I did not quite understand your question!
I do not count Microsoft to bad... is a company that makes its own interests (hopefully legally)... as is Red-Hat or other...

6. Probably in a final commercial product the real benefits of having open source software are less obvious ...
What I would do with open source software in a calculator?
But modern devices are now real computational systems and providing opportunities unimaginable only a few years ago.
So being able to develop for that particular platform might be always interesting.

7. and 8. The goodness of a commercial product I do not think should be measured in terms of commercial license but of mere functionality and technical/practical characteristics.

9. I do not want to convince anyone to switch to open source but simply I think it could be a plus for many types of devices and tecnology on the market now.
Ultimately share and compare their ideas is the very essence of growth but perhaps is also the thing that most frightens us.

Ciao

[BlueJayofEvil]

I'm a student in college and for english we have to make a zine. The subject of my zine is Open Source Software, where I will be highlighting the differences between Open and Closed source, as well as Free vs. Commercial licensing, and will also include tips and resources to guide new users on the path to libre software. What I need from all you wonderful people is help with the interview part of the zine.

Sounds like an interesting project.

1. what is your involvement with software; i.e. - are you a an enduser, support professional, programmer, etc.

End-user, but hope to learn some programming in the near future. I guess you could call me a "hobbyist."

2. What do you feel are the most important aspects of Free Open Source Software.

1. The licensing - many Free Software/Open-Source licenses exist to fit a wide variety of technical and idealistic goals. Some may prefer protecting end-user freedom at all cost (e.g. the GPL) while others may prefer to not hinder possible development obstacles (e.g. the various BSD licenses, CDDL, MPL, and similar ones). Some may want a balance between those two points (e.g. the LGPL.) Then there's always public domain software (e.g. the Unlicense) for those who don't wish to hold a copyright on their software.
2. Openness - I like that everyone from developers to end-users are able to examine the code and make changes shape the software to suit their needs. As someone who is currently looking to learn programming, I've examined some open-source code to help myself learn how certain things work. Taking a small program and learning its internals helps those who like (or are helped by) learning from experience.
3. Freedom - this goes hand-in-hand with #1. I like that I'm not tied up and bound by legally-enforceable EULAs that restrict me or others from just trying to use the software we need to do whatever it is we wish to accomplish.

3. If Microsoft gave Windows away for free, would you use it?

If I needed to, but don't expect me to like it.

4. If Windows was open source, that is, there were many flavors produced by many groups, like there are many distributions of Linux, would you use it?

That would depend on what kind of licensing the software had. Assuming you mean GPL or the permissive BSD variant licenses, I would probably use it (or one of the "many flavors" that would possibly spring up.

5. If Linux was wholly owned by Microsoft (or another big, possibly evil corporation) , instead of the kernel being Linus' and the rest being GNU, would you still use it?

See my previous answer. It would depend a lot on the licensing terms. Many big (and some "evil") corporations (Microsoft included, unbelievably) have contributed code to the Linux kernel. IBM, Oracle, and many others have done the same. Many hardware manufacturers do as well.

6. Do you think more people would buy an iPod/iPhone/iPad/MacBook/iMac if Apple removed every last proprietary part of those products and let the end user have actual complete control over thier own property?

Definitely.

7. Do you think OS X or iOS would be better off released under GPL instead of being proprietary?

They would likely gain a bit more market share, but competition is fierce already in the Free Software/Open-Source world. Just take a look at KDE and GNOME, for example. Adding OS X to that mix would likely bring about some good changes, and possibly some not-so-good ones. If iOS was freed/opened up, Android would have an even greater competitor than iOS is currently.

8. Do you think the Android OS would have been better off released under GPLv2 instead of the ASLv2 (Apache Software License)?

Hard to say. Some projects have been hindered by the GPL (look up the history of Menuet OS - they decided to keep the 64-bit version proprietary due to the developer infighting that the GPL enabled) while other projects have flourished.

9. If you could ask any of the these questions to anyone, who would you ask? What answer(s) would you expect?

I'd ask them to students and younger developers, as well as people in countries restricted by draconian patent and copyright laws.
I'd expect their answers to be similar to mine, albeit likely more enthusiastic about the importance of end-user freedom (similar to the likes of Richard Stallman.)