Perspectives on free and open source software

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Perspectives on Free and Open Source Software

Perspectives on Free and Open Source Software

The MIT Press

Cambridge, Massachusetts

London, England

edited by

Joseph Feller, Brian Fitzgerald, Scott A. Hissam, and Karim R. Lakhani

© 2005 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Perspectives on free and open source software / edited by Joseph Feller . . . [et al.].

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-262-06246-1 (alk. paper)

1. Shareware (Computer software) 2. Open source software. 3. Computer

software—Development. I. Feller, Joseph, 1972–

QA76.76.S46P47 2005

005.36—dc22

2004064954

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

My love, thanks and humble apologies go to my very patient and

supportive family: Carol, Caelen, Damien, and Dylan.

JF

Arís as Gaeilge: Buíochas mór le mo chlann, Máire, Pól agus Eimear. Is mór

agam an iarracht a rinne sibh ar mo shon.

BF

With heartfelt warmth, I dedicate this book to my wife, Jacqueline, and

my two sons, Derek and Zachery, who bring meaning to everything I do.

SAH

To Shaheen, Doulat, and Sitarah, your love makes it all possible.

A special note of thanks to Eric von Hippel for being a great mentor and

a true chum.

KRL

Contents

Foreword by Michael Cusumano xi

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction xvii

by Joseph Feller, Brian Fitzgerald, Scott Hissam, and Karim R. Lakhani

I Motivation in Free/Open Source Software Development 1

1 Why Hackers Do What They Do: Understanding Motivation and

Effort in Free/Open Source Software Projects 3

Karim R. Lakhani and Robert G. Wolf

2 Understanding Free Software Developers: Findings from the FLOSS

Study 23

Rishab Aiyer Ghosh

3 Economic Perspectives on Open Source 47

Josh Lerner and Jean Tirole

II The Evaluation of Free/Open Source Software Development 79

4 Standing in Front of the Open Source Steamroller 81

Robert L. Glass

5 Has Open Source Software a Future? 93

Brian Fitzgerald

6 Open Source Software Development: Future or Fad? 107

Srdjan Rusovan, Mark Lawford, and David Lorge Parnas

7 Attaining Robust Open Source Software 123

Peter G. Neumann

8 Open and Closed Systems Are Equivalent (That Is, in an Ideal

World) 127

Ross Anderson

9 Making Lightning Strike Twice 143

Charles B. Weinstock and Scott A. Hissam

III Free/Open Source Processes and Tools 161

10 Two Case Studies of Open Source Software Development: Apache

and Mozilla 163

Audris Mockus, Roy T. Fielding, and James D. Herbsleb

11 Software Engineering Practices in the GNOME Project 211

Daniel M. German

12 Incremental and Decentralized Integration in FreeBSD 227

Niels Jørgensen

13 Adopting Open Source Software Engineering (OSSE) Practices by

Adopting OSSE Tools 245

Jason Robbins

IV Free/Open Source Software Economic and Business Models 265

14 Open Source Software Projects as “User Innovation Networks” 267

Eric von Hippel

15 An Analysis of Open Source Business Models 279

Sandeep Krishnamurthy

16 The Allocation of Software Development Resources in Open Source

Production Mode 297

Jean-Michel Dalle and Paul A. David

17 Shared Source: The Microsoft Perspective

Jason Matusow

V Law, Community, and Society

18 Open Code and Open Societies

Lawrence Lessig

19 Legal Aspects of Free and Open Source Software 361

David McGowan

viii Contents

329

347

349

20 Nonprofit Foundations and Their Role in Community-Firm Software

Collaboration 393

Siobhan O’Mahony

21 Free Science 415

Christopher Kelty

22 High Noon at OS Corral: Duels and Shoot-Outs in Open Source

Discourse 431

Anna Maria Szczepanska, Magnus Bergquist, and Jan Ljungberg

23 Libre Software Policies at the European Level 447

Phillipe Aigrain

24 The Open Source Paradigm Shift 461

Tim O’Reilly

Epilogue: Open Source outside the Domain of Software 483

Clay Shirky

References 489

List of Contributors 513

Index 525

Contents ix

Foreword

As with other researchers and authors who study the software business

and software engineering, I have had many opportunities to learn about

free and open source software (FOSS). There is a lot to know, and I am

especially pleased to see this volume of essays from MIT Press because

it provides so much information—both quantitative and qualitative—

on so many aspects of the open source movement. It will answer many

questions as well as continue to inspire more research for years to

come.

The research in this book is authoritative and thoughtful and offers

something for everyone. For example, economists will want to know the

motivations of people and companies (such as IBM or Hewlett Packard),

who give freely of their time to create or improve a “public good.” Not sur￾prisingly, the research indicates that many FOSS developers are motivated

both by the creative challenge as well as self-interest, such as enhancing

their reputations as programmers, and then take advantage of this effect

when searching for jobs. Because both for-profit and nonprofit organiza￾tions pay many programmers to work on open source projects, we find

there is also some overlap between the free and open source and com￾mercial software worlds.

Management specialists will want to know if there are business models

that enable for-profit firms to take advantage of free or open source soft￾ware. We learn that there are several seemingly viable commercial oppor￾tunities, even though open source, in many ways, is the ultimate

commoditization of at least some parts of the software products business.

The major business opportunities seem to be the hybrid approaches that

make money from selling services (such as for system installation and inte￾gration, and technical support) and distributing convenient packages that

include both free and open source software as well as some commercial

utilities or applications. This is the strategy that Red Hat, the poster child

of commercial OSS companies, has followed, and it is finally making

money as a distributor and by servicing Linux users.

Social scientists are fascinated by the coordination mechanisms used in

open source projects and will learn a lot about how the process works.

Computer scientists and software engineers, as well as IT managers, will

want to know if open source development methods produce better soft￾ware than proprietary methods produce. Most of the evidence in this book

suggests that the open source methods and tools resemble what we see in

the commercial sector and do not themselves result in higher quality. There

is good, bad, and average code in all software products. Not all open source

programmers write neat, elegant interfaces and modules, and then care￾fully test as well as document their code. Moreover, how many “eyeballs”

actually view an average piece of open source code? Not as many as Eric

Raymond would have us believe!

After reading the diverse chapters in this book, I remain fascinated but

still skeptical about how important open source actually will be in the long

run and whether, as a movement, it is raising unwarranted excitement

among users as well as entrepreneurs and investors. On the development

side, I can sympathize with the frustration of programmers such as Richard

Stallman, Linus Torvalds, or Eric Raymond in not being able to improve

commercial software and thus determining to write better code that is free

and available. Eric Raymond has famously described the open source style

of development as similar to a “bazaar,” in contrast to top-down, hierar￾chical design philosophies similar to how the Europeans built cathedrals

in the middle ages.

We also know from the history of the mainframe industry, UNIX, and

government-sponsored projects that much software has been a free “public

good” since the 1950s and that open source-like collaboration has led to

many innovations and improvements in software products. But, on the

business side, most companies operate to make money and need some

guarantee that they can make a return on investment by protecting their

intellectual property. To suggest that all software should be free and freely

available makes no sense. On the other hand, most software requires an

iterative style of development, and at least some software is well suited to

being written by programmers for other programmers in an open source

mode. Increasing numbers of the rest of us can take advantage of this

public good when “programmer products” like Linux, Apache, and Send

Mail become more widely used or easier to use.

The conclusion I reach from reading this book is that the software world

is diverse as well as fascinating in its contrasts. Most likely, software users

xii Foreword

will continue to see a comingling of free, open source, and proprietary soft￾ware products for as far as the eye can see. Open source will force some

software products companies to drop their prices or drop out of commer￾cial viability, but other products and companies will appear. The business

of selling software products will live on, along with free and open source

programs. This is most likely how it will be, and it is how it should be.

Michael Cusumano

Groton and Cambridge, Massachusetts

February 2005

Foreword xiii