Open Source, Open Season for Confusion

September 3, 2009

I hear about open systems when I attend a meeting in Washington, DC. I hear about open source initiatives when I talk with Microsoft Certified Gold partners. I hear about open source when 20 something PR folks call me about their company’s new product.

I am confused because I get similar signals plotted on my radar as a way to sell engineering services. I like high end consulting and technical services. I think the notion of downloading software and paying for support is fine. What baffles me is the array of licenses in play for open source.

David Chisnall’s “The Failure of the GPL” provides a clear discussion of the GPL or General Public License. For me the most important passage in the write up was:

The GPL fails to achieve its original objectives, and it also discourages people who don’t want to employ a lawyer to read several pages of legalese and discover whether their intended use is likely to be allowed. It’s easy to infringe accidentally; but if you really want to violate the spirit of the license, then it’s still possible to comply with the letter of the license. With this situation in mind, it’s easy to see why permissively licensed alternatives to GPL’d programs have recently started to see a lot more commercially sponsored development.

The result is the use of the word “open” and a general Wild West business environment. Can open source vendors who follow rules, cultivate and grow the publicly available code, and operate with the interests of their customers firmly in mind thrive amidst the confusion? Some organizations may balk because of the risks only partially understood. I know I am confused when asked to explain these cloudy “risks”. Hopefully the open source community can ameliorate these poorly delineated risks and clear up some of the gnats Mr Chisnall identifies.

Stephen Arnold, September 3, 2009

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under News, Open source, Technology

Comments

2 Responses to “Open Source, Open Season for Confusion”

Avi Rappoport, Search Tools Consulting on September 4th, 2009 5:36 pm

Hi Stephen,

Have you looked at the Apache license? It is a much better fit for commercial software and business use than the GPL, which is more of a decades-old political statement than anything else.

http://www.apache.org/licenses/

Avi
Stephen E. Arnold on September 4th, 2009 7:39 pm

Avi Rappoport,

Is this a test? What do I need to do to get an A? When is recess?

Stephen Arnold, September 4, 2009

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.