Open Source Software and Documents: A Literature and Online Resource... http://www.omar.

org/opensource/litreview/

There is a Japanese version of this document available here.

Open Source Software and Documents: A Literature and Online

Resource Review

John G. Drummond

April 5, 2000

Introduction
Download Open Source
Open source software (OSS) and open source documents (OSD) are a ETL
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Since open source is relatively novel (as far as the mainstream,

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non-hacker2 culture is concerned) and largely exists online, there are CMS
only two printed works on the subject-and most of the material in these Acquia Makes Drupal
two books is also freely available online. One of the things that make the Simple Download
open source movement so unusual is that as it has developed over the Software Directly Online
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last twenty years or so, it has done little self-documenting. This is one
reason that Eric S. Raymond , self-appointed chief advocate for open
source, wrote his now-famous essay "The Cathedral and the Bazaar." Open Source Software
Focus On Success In
Each Phase Of The
ESR (as the hacker community refers to Mr. Raymond) wrote "Cathedral
Process. Low Risk.
and Bazaar" largely to ameliorate this condition of non-documentation. Download Now
Fascinated by the rapid development and growing sophistication of the www.Bluenog.com
Linux3 operating system, ESR began studying the open source
development model (Raymond, 198). Why was Linux so mature, when
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the Free Software Foundation had been trying to develop a similar Mule: Leading open
operating system for years without success? He found that while the source ESB for SOA &
corporate, mainstream, closed-source method (the "cathedral" model) of Integration. Free Trial!
coding large programs like operating systems is bound by Brooke's Law, www.MuleSource.com

the open source development process (the "bazaar" model) actually

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reverses it. Brooke's Law states that programming work performed

increases with direct proportion to the number of programmers (N), but
the complexity of a project increases by the square of the number of
programmers (N2). Therefore, it should follow that thousands of
programmers working on a single project should become mired in a
nightmare of human communication and version control. As "Cathedral
and Bazaar" explains, the open source model (the "bazaar") overcomes
this problem through customary central version control, mutual respect,
and an army of developers and bug testers. This is summed up in a
famous statement by ESR known as "Linus' Law" (so named for Linus
Torvalds, original author and maintainer of the Linux kernel4): "Many
eyes make all bugs shallow." "The Cathedral and the Bazaar," first given
in 1997 at the Linux Kongress in Bavaria, led directly to the release of
the Netscape browser source (see http://www.mozilla.org) and the
current open source boom (Raymond, 200).

History

So how did all this come about? The open source concept is as old as the
history of computing, and is closer to the original academic development
of computing systems than the corporate model of today. These early
days are illustrated in two excellent essays, "A Brief History of
Hackerdom" by Eric S. Raymond, and "The GNU Operating System and
the Free Software Movement" by Richard M. Stallman. Both of these
essays trace the simultaneous beginnings of modern computing, the
Internet, and open source software development. More historical
information (along with the origins of many arcane computer terms) can
be found at the Jargon File (at http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/) or in
its published counterpart, The New Hacker's Dictionary (which was,
incidentally, one of the first books to be commercially published and
simultaneously available online for free).

The first organized effort to produced open source software was the Free
Software Foundation (FSF), founded by Richard M. Stallman (known as
RMS) in 1985 (Stallman, 60). RMS formed the nonprofit foundation for
two reasons: to further develop GNU5 software, and to create a thinktank
to further the notion of "Copyleft." Copyleft is a pun-the idea being to
turn copyright around upon itself. The FSF developed this concept into
the GNU Public License (GPL), a software distribution license that
stipulates (in a nutshell):

Software released under the GPL shall be freely distributable

The software shall be distributed along with its source code
Anyone is free to modify the source code and change the program,
as long as the resulting program is also freely distributable and
modifiable

This ensures that all of the GNU software (and any other software
released under the GPL) is protected from those who would use the code
to create proprietary, closed-source programs. Around half of the open

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source software available today is made available under the terms of the
GPL. Today there exist several similar licenses of varying restrictions
and attitudes toward commercial use and sale of covered software (see
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/).

Open Source Documents

The first documents that truly followed the open source model (in the
sense of having many contributors and reviewers coupled with online
availability) were Frequently Asked Questions lists, known as FAQs. The
first online FAQ to go by that title is attributed to Eugene Miya, a NASA
employee (Hersch, 1). His SPACE-digest mailing list FAQ was written in
1982, when the Internet was a little-known experimental network known
as the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) (see
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/faqs/about-faqs/ ). Unfortunately, little is
known about the history of these now-ubiquitous informational
documents. An attempt was begun in 1996 to write a book about FAQs,
but the web page for this project has not been updated since 1997 (see
http://www.faqs.org/faqbook/ ).

Unfortunately, documentation is one of the weakest aspects of open

source program (Stallman, 68). This is, perhaps, a result of the fact that
hackers enjoy coding so very much; updating the documentation is
sometimes an afterthought. Conversely, the idea that programmers make
poor writers is an unfortunate stereotype. Eric Raymond insists that the
very best hackers are also excellent writers, since good programming
involves both logical analysis of a problem and a high level of creativity
(Raymond, 246). This is evident in the fact that ESR (author of the
popular Fetchmail program and numerous modules for the Emacs text
editor), Richard Stallman (author of GNU Emacs, the GNU C compiler,
and other keystone programs), Larry Wall (creator of the Perl
programming language), and other open source luminaries have written
numerous (and excellent) essays, manuals, and technical books.

This is changing, however. Since open source software, particularly the

Linux operating system, needs good documentation to expand to new
users, much work has been done to improve this situation. Open source
programs are usually documented in three forms:

README files that are distributed with each individual program

Manual pages ("man pages", so named after the man command
used to access them), technical references which are also
distributed with each program (see ftp://ftp.win.tue.nl/pub/linux
/docs/manpages/)
HOWTO documents, which are instructional in nature, and usually
task- (as opposed to program-) oriented (see http://www.linux.org
/help/ldp/howto/howto.html). There is also a smaller, less
step-by-step subset of the HOWTO documents known as
Mini-HOWTOs (see http://www.linux.org/help/ldp
/mini/minihowto.html )6

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The maintenance of these documents is made difficult by the very nature

of the open source development model. Since there are so many
developers, running under a directive of "release early, release often,"
open source software can change at a rapid pace. To facilitate better
documentation and document management, the Linux Documentation
Project was founded by Matt Welsh in 1992 ( http://www.linuxdoc.org/
). There is a recent interview of Deb Richardson, the current head of the
LDP, at Slashdot (http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/03/27/0717244&
mode=thread ). Another similar resource is the Open Source Writer's
Group ( http://www.oswg.org:8080/oswg ), which serves as a database
for open source volunteers willing to do documentation and other open
source writing projects, based on skill and interest.

As an offshoot of the concept of freely available and modifiable

documentation, OpenContent was created by David Wiley to create a
license similar to the GPL that would apply to any information that is not
a program (http://www.opencontent.org/). The idea is that if computer
programs can be debugged (edited) and improved by making them
modifiable by anyone with the desire to help, documents and other
content should benefit from a similar process. A similar license, the GNU
Free Documentation License (GNU FDL) was authored by Richard
Stallman and released in March, 2000. The idea of "freely modifiable and
distributable" music, stories, instructions, and other documents and
media is still new, and the nature of any applicable distribution license is
(as of March 2000) widely debated (see http://www.linuxmall.com
/news/features/000324fdl , and http://opencontent.org/announce.shtml ).

Online Forums and Other Resources

Open source is a community as well as a method of software and

document development. There are several "watering holes" that open
source advocates, developers, writers, and the curious frequent. The
most famous of these forums is Slashdot (so named for the dot-and-slash
(/.) notation used to denote the directory structure used in UNIX
systems), an open source news and discussion forum ( http://slashdot.org/
). Journalists who are unfamiliar with the open source community usually
go to Slashdot to get their first taste of the quirky, often irreverent world
of open source adherents. The site consists of articles, which are usually
submitted by Slashdot readers, and discussion of those articles. With the
slogan of "News for nerds, stuff that matters," Slashdot topics range from
open source issues to science fiction, the role of "geeks" in society,
science and technology, and the occasional essay. Other forums and
news sites are:

Segfault7 ( http://www.segfault.org/), a sort of anti-Slashdot that

posts parodies and humorous stories
Freshmeat ( http://www.freshmeat.net/), which announces new
releases of open source software and other relevant news such as
security issues

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Kernel Notes ( http://kernelnotes.org/ ), which publishes

announcements regarding the Linux Kernel4 (which is sometimes
updated with a new release several times per day!)
Linux Forum ( http://www.linuxforum.com/ ), a currently-defunct
site for general Linux discussion

There are also other websites, mailing lists, and Usenet8 newsgroups too
numerous to mention; a Web search for the term "Linux" at
www.google.com yields 1,560,000 results. Examining www.linux.org or
the comp.os.linux hierarchy of newsgroups should point the curious in
the right direction.

In addition, there are specialized development forums dedicated to open

source. Since any open source business model depends on the abundance
of quality software, several companies host free development sites,
which offer a combination of development tools, shell accounts, FTP
(File Transfer Protocol) and Web hosting, version control software like
CVS (Concurrent Versions System), and "matchmaking" (introducing
developers and users who are looking for each other), all for free. Some
of the most significant are:

Sourceforge ( http://www.sourceforge.net ), which offers news,

Web and FTP site hosting, shell accounts, CVS, and discussion
forums for open source projects
The Free Software Bazaar ( http://visar.csustan.edu/bazaar/ ),
which serves as a link between open source developers and open
source users who need development work done
SourceXchange, ( http://www.sourcexchange.com/ ) where
developers and users can barter code, documents and ideas

Closing

These are just the tip of the iceberg, though I have consciously tried to
denote those resources which will provide the most valuable information
and point the reader toward other resources of more specialized interest.
There are thousands upon thousands of Linux-related pages on the
World Wide Web. There are also Usenet newsgroups, mailing lists,
magazines (see http://www.linuxworld.com/ ), and Linux User Groups
(LUGs), in addition to the many different Linux distributions (see
http://www.linux.org/dist/index.html ).

Open Source is a phenomenon that is growing in momentum,

membership, and market share. It has already touched the lives of
everyone who uses the Internet (since many of the services and programs
that make the Internet go are either open source, or based on an open
source program). It will continue to do so, and anyone required to keep
up with technology in the world today needs at least some familiarity
with its precepts and concepts. I hope this review will assist those that
would like to learn more.

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Notes

1. The term "open source" was coined by Eric Raymond and ratified in a
meeting between himself, Richard M. Stallman, and other notable open
source advocates. It is intended to replace the previous term, "free
software," used by Richard Stallman. Despit e the constant
admonishment that the "free" in "free software" meant "Free as in
speech, not as in beer," corporate-minded people were leery of the idea
of software that could not be sold (Raymond, 212). [Back]

2. "Hacker" is how programmers describe someone who enjoys solving

problems in ingenious ways. It is a term of praise that must be earned in
the hacker community. Unfortunately, people who exploit software bugs
to crash, interfere with, or gain unauthorized access to other people's
computer systems also sometimes refer to themselves as "hackers." The
popular media has seized upon this misnomer and popularized it, to the
confusion of the general public. People in the open source community
refer to such miscreants and criminals as "crackers." [Back]

3. Linux (named after Linus Torvalds, its creator) is the most popular of
the open source operating systems. Linux is a "workalike" clone of the
UNIX operating system, based on the Linux kernel (see note 4, below),
the suite of GNU (see note 5, below) t ools and applications, and other
software packages depending on which Linux you are using. There are
many flavors of Linux (called distributions), a few of which are RedHat (
http://www.redhat.com/ ), Slackware ( http://www.slackware.com/ ), and
Debian ( http://www.debian.org ). [Back]

4. The kernel is the heart of any operating system. The kernel performs
low-level tasks such as memory allocation, process management, and
communication with hardware. It serves as the negotiator between
programs and the hardware of a computer system. Kernels are some of
the most difficult and complex of all types of computer programs. [Back]

5. GNU is a recursive acronym that stands for "GNU's Not UNIX."

(which stands for "GNU's Not Unix Not Unix," which stands for. . .) It is
the "brand" for software developed by the Free Software Foundation.
Another well-known recursive acronym name is the PINE mail reader
("PINE Is Not Elm" (Elm is another mail reader upon which Pine was
based)). A book could easily be written on the quirky names for UNIX
commands and acronyms. For example, the biff command (used to check
for new email) is not a recursive acronym; it was named after a dog.
[Back]

6. There are HOWTO documents on all sorts of Linux concepts.

Including how to get Linux to make coffee (see http://www.linux.org
/help/ldp/mini/Coffee.html )! [Back]

7. Segfault is named, appropriately, after an error known as a

"Segmentation Fault." This is an error that occurs when a program tries

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to access an incorrect segment of memory (see http://www.tuxedo.org

/~esr/jargon/html/entry/segmentation-fault.html ). The program will then
perform a core dump, which, as far as most users (and many
programmers) are concerned, means that a meaningless gobbledygook of
numbers and letters is dumped onto the screen or into a file called
"core." [Back]

8. Usenet is the collective term for the collection of Internet-wide

newsgroups. Usenet was originally a handful of forums intended for
ARPANET developers to use as a common bulletin board. It now
contains many thousands of newsgroups, arranged in hierarchical dotted
notation (e.g., under rec.pets, one may find rec.pets.dogs, rec.pets.cats,
and rec.pets.cats.siamese). [Back]

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This document is freely available for distribution under the terms of the
Open Publication License. The OPL text is available at
http://opencontent.org/opl.shtml.

Please send email if you have any questions, comments, or broken link
reports.

Changelog/Errata

Corrected 5/5/2000: Linus' Law is attributed to Eric Raymond,

not Linus Torvalds. (thanks to ESR for this correction)
Typo 5/30/2000: typo in citation for Mozilla.org. (thanks to
Yasushi Murakawa for having a good eye.)

This article has also been published at OSOpinion

(http://www.osopinion.com/Opinions/JohnDrummond/JohnDrummond1.html),
Linux Today (http://linuxtoday.com/infrastructure/2000063000304OPOO),
and at Penguinista (http://www.penguinista.org/cgi-bin
/article?articleId=189&showBody=Y). You may also wish to read Xavier
Basora's thoughtful response, Alternative Software
Documentation: Professionalizing the Penguin.

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