OSI

Can open source stop navel gazing and get real?

Enterprises and other users deploy open-source software because it works. For those of us in the open-source vendor community, however, too often we waste time talking about issues that have relatively little resonance for the vast majority of users.

We miss the mark on open-source marketing. In fact, it's often the case that the very standards we seek to set for the software world--interoperability, transparency, etc.--are better observed and delivered by open standards than by open source.

As a case in point, Red Hat and other open-source companies (including Alfresco, my employer) routinely advertise "no lock-in" … Read more

Open-source extremism, and how the OSI can help

One of the profound failings of the open-source movement is how insular it has allowed its ideology to be. While the commercialization of open source has necessarily forced a new dialectic into open source (one with many different shades and permutations), it's amazing just how unyielding some opinions can be. While constancy is good, it can also be the "hobgoblin of mediocre minds" and reflects a somewhat stagnant discussion within the open-source development community.

It also reflects the theme of noted legal scholar Cass Sunstein's new book, Going to Extremes: How Like Minds United and Divide, … Read more

Secunia's Online Software Inspector

Secunia's Online Software Inspector (OSI) is a great free service, one that all Windows users should avail themselves of regularly. OSI is an online scan of a Windows computer (Macs and Linux are not supported) that looks for software with known security flaws. Any computer that gets a clean bill of health from OSI is better defended than one that doesn't.

As I write this, only 7,019 scans have been run in the last 24 hours. More Windows users need to be made aware of the scanner, and I hope this posting does so. That said, OSI … Read more

The OSI digs into license proliferation again...but why?

Someone needs to tell the Open Source Initiative, Google, and others who fret about license proliferation that the market has already cut down the number of actively used licenses to just a small handful: L/GPL, BSD/Apache, MPL, and a few others (EPL, CPL). Even so, the OSI has decided to kickstart its stalled movement to reduce the number of open-source licenses condoned by the OSI.

As OSI board member Russ Nelson writes in the board minutes:

Mr. Nelson moves that we form a license proliferation committee to evaluate all existing licenses into two tiers - an upper tier … Read more

A prayer for Microsoft

Sunday morning, and I couldn't help but ponder Michael Tiemann's excellent note on Microsoft's revised (and improved) Open Specification Promise and "what Microsoft can do for open source."

Michael rightly notes that Microsoft's Promise, while certainly improved, still leaves much to be desired. No surprise there, which leads Michael to a thoughtful, probing analysis of what Microsoft could do to fully engage with open-source communities:

Let's think big. The open-source community already has more than a billion lines of source code at its disposal, and it's doubling every 12.5 months, so I think it's fair to say "we don't really need your code." And we also know that money alone is no substitute for the freedom to innovate that we so crave. So what big thing could we do with Microsoft's cooperation?

There are really four things on my list, but if they did only the first, it would be a meaningful start. The list is:

Pursue the abolition of software patents with the same zeal they showed in their efforts to get OOXML approved as a standard. Unilaterally promise to not use the DMCA to maintain control of their Trusted Computing Platform. Transition to 100 percent open standards (as defined by the OSI, IETF, W3C, or the Digistan). Stop trying to maintain their monopolies by illegal, anticompetitive means.

These sound more like an ultimatum than a request for mutual action, but you get that in Michael's detailed discussion of these four items. In so doing, I think that Michael does an excellent job of demonstrating how to work with Microsoft:… Read more

Microsoft opens up its Open Specification Promise

Steve Ballmer may not have anything better to say than "blah" and "Google" in his analyst meetings, but his open-source group came up with a doozy today.

The flawed Open Specification Promise (OSP) just became whole. Or close to it. Microsoft has opened up its Open Specification Promise to make it meaningful and usable to a wider group of people. Even Groklaw, which sets a high (and generally fair) bar for Microsoft is impressed.

Microsoft's OSP has been controversial in part because it's basic covenant not to sue developers was crippled by its application only to noncommercial developers, as well as other ambiguities that have been resolved. With this update to the OSP, this restriction is gone, as Sam Ramji, Director of Microsoft's Open Source Software Lab, confirmed:

Microsoft is putting a wide range of protocols that were formerly in the Communications Protocol Program under the Open Specification Promise (OSP). This guarantees their freedom from any patent claims from Microsoft now or in the future, and includes both Microsoft-developed and industry-developed protocols.… Read more

Microsoft dumps Sandcastle, does right by open source

When I texted Sam Ramji to let him know about Sandcastle, and he quickly texted back that he would look into it, I figured that a) it hadn't yet hit anyone's radar at Microsoft and b) that he'd fix it.

Fix it, he did. As Mary Jo Foley notes, it was "doubtful [that] Microsoft was willing to risk the wrath of the OSI over a documentation compiler." I'd go one step further. Once alerted to Sandcastle's violation and to the importance thereof, it was doubtful that Microsoft's Sam Ramji and Co. would be interested in the code, however important/non-important it might be.

Sam gets open source. He's not always supported in this understanding by the larger Microsoft entity, but Sam gets it. His apology to the OSI is direct, concise, and appropriate:

This is unacceptable and represents a violation of Microsoft's Open Source policy. I take it extremely seriously.

I have directed the project to be unpublished from Codeplex immediately, including removal of the project's use of the Ms-PL. If the team chooses to publish the source code and follow Microsoft policy, then the project may be re-published in the future. If not, we will remove all references to Sandcastle from Codeplex.… Read more

The OSI gets new leaders

The Open Source Initiative just announced the results of its 2008 board elections. The good news? I'm out. (I wasn't able to give the amount of time needed by the OSI--the OSI is a lot of work.)

The better news? Some fantastic new faces are in, namely Martin Michlmayr (Linux International, Debian, HP) and Harshad Gune (GNUify Conference, Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research in Pune, India).

I'm really happy to welcome Martin and Harshad to the OSI board, and to see the others remain (Danese, Michael, Russ, Ken, Alolita, Nnenna, Rishab, and Bruno). It's … Read more

Bruce Perens campaigns to join the OSI

Bruce Perens wants to be an OSI board member. That's fine. But he also seems to want to engage in scorched earth political campaigns to get there. That's not so fine.

Bruce claims that the OSI is over-represented with vendors and, populist that he is, wants to return power to the "people" (i.e., developers). I can appreciate this. I made the same point about the Linux Foundation when it was formed from the ashes of the FSG and OSDL.

But this is where Bruce's candidacy loses some of its potency. To merit a board role, Bruce must show that he's for more than he's against, and he must show that he has actually done something for open source in the recent past. From his post we know that he's against Microsoft joining the OSI, but this is a strawman, as is his fight against special (corporate) interests channeling the OSI's energies. But tilting at strawmen isn't enough to justify an OSI board role.

As an outgoing board member, and perhaps the most corporate of the bunch, I wanted to respond specifically to Bruce's insinuations. In so doing, I'm speaking as Matt Asay, and not for the OSI.… Read more