Other Articles by Art Wittmann

Intel's Adventures in Serial Numbering, Columnists, February 22, 1999 With Friends Like These..., Columnists, March 8, 1999 Network and Systems Management: Not Happening, Columnists, March 22, 1999 Reading Between the Headlines, Columnists, April 5, 1999 Is Video Broadcasting Coming to Your Network?, Columnists, April 19, 1999

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Open source has its origins in GNU tools--compilers, editors, libraries, Unix shells, linkers and other utilities--used primarily by programmers, or in shops where programmers are available to download and compile the GNU source code for use in the local environment. If the tools are found lacking, programmers enhance them and submit the enhancements to the GNU user community. A programmer can even include such code in commercial distributions as long as the source code is made available and no restrictions are placed on the further distribution of the code (see www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html).

What makes the open-source-code concept work? First, those who publish their works aren't trying to make money. They simply want to give back to the community. Second, the community is small, and centered on universities and research centers. The high quality of the utilities is maintained because only a few relatively good programmers attempt to understand and extend the source code.

Enter Linux Linux represents a departure of sorts from the GNU model. Linux kernel releases go through and are controlled by Linus Torvalds (see www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html). Torvalds represents an all-powerful release coordinator who shepherds the maturation of Linux through the efforts of programmers around the world. Others shepherd other pieces of the total Linux release, essentially ensuring the quality of each release. This model has resulted in what can only be described as an amazingly mature product with a feature set that most operating systems have taken years to develop (or, in some cases, have yet to develop.)

Netscape sought to capitalize on the enthusiasm of the developer community by throwing open the source code to its browser. The source release, known as Mozilla, was much heralded, but after a year on the "open shell," no third party has stepped up to offer any substantial new features or enhancements to Mozilla. There are two reasons for this. First, the commercial interests of Netscape imply that the company never really will play the release coordinator role, allowing the market to push its product in new ways previously unimagined by the Netscape crew. Second, the original release of Linux amounted to a bit more than 100,000 lines of code. That's not huge by modern development standards, and a code that size can be understood by a single programmer. Netscape, however, released more than 10 million lines of code with Mozilla. Very few programmers are going to try to tackle that.

Enter Microsoft? Now Microsoft says it is considering putting the source code to Windows in the public domain. Microsoft has long had a policy of "embracing and extending" competing standards, which is Microsoft-speak for "diluting and trivializing." To be fair, in some cases Microsoft has done this to the benefit of itself and the industry (for example, embracing and only marginally extending TCP/IP). But there are cases in which Microsoft has tried to embrace a technology to death; Java comes to mind. And Microsoft's current noise regarding open source should be seen as just that: noise.

If Netscape's interests were unfortunately parochial, Microsoft's are intentionally predatory. Large customers that have sought the source code to Windows or other Microsoft applications have been able to get it. Various universities have had source code to NT to support research initiatives, for example. Availability of source code isn't new. It's the willingness to allow the greater developer community to steer a product's direction that Microsoft, and Netscape for that matter, will never demonstrate. Linus Torvalds has an infinitely greater ability and desire to let the Linux community drive the OS's direction than would either Netscape or Microsoft. If you think Microsoft's overtures to open source are at all intriguing, think again. All they mean is that the company is worried about Linux and can't find a way to embrace and extend it to death.

Send comments on this column to Art Wittmann at awittmann@nwc.com.