作为计算机操作系统行业的巨头，Linux着实让Windows稍显逊色。Linux出色的性能表现，以及其强大的功能模块，无一不让Windows名落孙山。但是在中国——这个受Windows影响颇深的国家——宣传Open Source思想，会让我们这些公益劳动者们吃尽苦头。话题触及到Open Source，对方一般的回答是：“Open Source是什么？”——这个问题足以引人深思。
难道Open Source在中国真的就没有出路吗？答案肯定是NO！
下面就用我的一份报告来总结Open Source的发展成果。
Open Source and What It Brings
Abstract: Nowadays, some software comes to its Open Source Way, and more software will take park in the trend of Open Source in the coming few years. In my report, I’ll analyze some typical Open Source software and Open Source project’s contributions to the world. With the statistics listed at the end of the report, some conclusions will be put forward.
Ⅰ. An Introduction to Open Source
When man came into being, they began to cooperate with their companions. With the help of each other, we human beings created the modern world. The history of the development of the modern technology is the history of human collaboration. Same to the human history, in computer science field, the collaboration still exists. As we have mentioned above, Open Source is a kind of collaboration that many computer hackers gathered together to develop software which is needed by the modern world without being encumbered by all of the problems of intellectual property.
Today, many companies have taken part in the trend of Open Source, such as IBM, Nokia, and Adobe and so on. The proposal of Open Source was first brought forward by some leaders in a Free Software association. And it soon came into a great trend sweeping over the computer science field. Everyone can be a member of Open Source technology because generally the source code of Open Source software is published. One can download the code on their websites.
In one’s daily life, no matter where he lives, he is using Open Source software all the time. For instance, Linux is a famous Open Source OS (Operating System), and it is the only OS that has the ability to topple Microsoft’s Windows series.
Generally, much Open Source software is free. There’s usually no ad in the software because the Open Source software is developed for use, besides of commercial purpose. And always, the Open Source software is safe because many people are finding bugs and fixing them for its users. Many people say that free to all is the purpose of Open Source, but in many visions, the main purpose of Open Source is to advance the development of computer science.
Open Source has great opportunities and challenges, and with the effort of the computer hackers, its future will be extraordinary.
Ⅱ. Typical Open Source Software
Linux (OS): The statement that Linux can be the spokesman of Open Source is true. Linux is known all over the world. Linux is an excellent Unix-based platform, which provides us with a choice besides Microsoft’s Windows and other platforms. In the same time, it has many features that Windows doesn’t have, such as the strong capability in web technology and scientific analysis.
With the development of Linux series, many different platforms based on Linux were published in the past few years, such as Red Hat, Red Flag, Fedora, SuSE, Ubuntu, Debian, etc. Statistics shows that there’re more than 300 kinds of Linux-based platforms, and they’re widely used in many fields.
The price of Microsoft Vista Ultimate is 339.99$, and compared with Vista, Linux is cheap, even most Linux-based platforms are free. All the PC vendors provide their client choices between Windows and Linux (maybe other platforms). There’re many websites for Linux users exchange the experience. A green Linuxer can easily get tutorials on the websites.
Linux comes into being, a great transform is breeding.
OpenOffice and its partners (Office Work): When our eyesight comes to office software, we’ll first see Microsoft Office. But when we need to cut down our cost, and Microsoft Office is too expensive (the standard version of Microsoft Office 2007 is priced at 399.95$), what should we do?
Open Source give us many cheap or free choices now. Using OpenOffice, you can not only enjoy the functions that Microsoft Office has, and in addition to the basic need of office work, Open Office offers many new features that can carry through special jobs.
As we have mentioned above, one of the advantages of Open Source software is that they’re cheap. With less cost, people can accomplish their office work in a cheap way.
The same to OpenOffice, there can be other Open Source office software that can replace Microsoft Office, such as IBM Lotus Symphony, StarOffice, KOffice, AbiWord, etc. They are out-standing, too.
With the rapid advance of cloud computing, Google is launching its new project that named Writely. Users can edit and save their documents on a web page and it’s easy to encrypt and easy to share. In a word, Writely is easy to get and easy to use. And the most important thing is, it’s Open Source. In the near future, more wonders are waiting for Open Source.
Our life is changing, everything come to be easy with the effort of Open Source.
Java (Programming): Java can be a loud name. When Java first came into being in 1995, it soon became very popular among the programmers. It grammar bases on C/C++, but it’s easier, stronger and safer than them.
In the Open Source fields, Java can be extremely famous. Java program is constituted by classes, even JDK (Java Development Kit) are formed by many small classes. In other words, Java is purely Open Source.
Open Source also provides Java developers with a strong IDE (Integrated Development Environment) named eclipse. The famous IDE’s source code is published on its website Eclipse.org. And many Open Source projects strengthened the function of Java, such as Spring, Struts, Hibernate, etc.
Flex (Web Programming): Programming by flex is a fresh saying. Flex is based on ActionScript which is embedded in Flash. It’s new technology developing software on web and desktop. Open Source became the choice of Flex in 2007 when Adobe announced that the source code of Flex SDK (Software Development Kit) was published. And from then on, Flex came to its rapid development way. It’s commonly believed that it will be the leader of Web2 Era.
One of the futures of web development is believed to be RIA (Rich Internet Applications). This new technology can deploy applications on web pages, which will greatly advance the development of web technology.
Although Flex is new, with the effort of the Flex developers, it can go further. Open Source will greatly change the patterns of the computer science field.
MySQL (Database): Database development is one of the main fields of computer science. There are many database development tools, but many of them are paid (the price of Oracle 9i Standard is about 5000$). Many websites such as bbs are non-profit, so the site owners need a balance between the high price and the growth of their websites. So an Open Source project came to their eyes, it’s called MySQL.
MySQL was originally developed by MySQLAB, and it’s bought by Sun in 2008. It’s widely used in small and medium-sized websites, providing free database services. Although it’s free, its functions are strong and it’s easy to measure.
When a website is build, database system is very important. It manages all the data that the server stores, and by using query statement, the server can display the appropriate data on user’s screen. Suppose that MySQL were not come into being, the World Wide Web would not become as colorful as we have today.
Open Source bring all of us to a colorful world of web, and it brings us more and more fresh experience that we never thought about before.
The list above is not comprehensive, such as PHP, Apache, Firefox and so on are not included. Open Source is an extensive field, and it is extending to all the fields of computer science. Almost all the new technologies are connected to Open Source.
Ⅲ. Share the World
With the Open Source introductions above, some conclusions can be summarized. Above all, Open Source is a nature action to advance our development of technology because man is born to be coordinate. At the same time, the work by the developers and the developer themselves are noble, they lead the trend to truth.
Open Source changed the concept of software development. In the old days, many programmers developed software only to make money. Open Source software developers lead their golden-colleagues to the truth of software. It is, software is mainly developed for use instead of making much money. With an appropriate attitude, Open Source software (and other commercial software) will be better and better.
Open Source can reduce cost, so it can help users make full use of their money. With the development of Open Source, great amount of money can be saved. It means that more and more projects (whatever field) will be established by the extra money. It will advance the steps of the development of our human world.
Open Source tells us, the development team which is formed by developers around the world can be extremely powerful. It’s stronger than any companies. The power of masses is enormous. It’s a truth that cannot be overthrow. Open Source reflected the strength of human themselves. To advance the computer science, the most important link is the common programmers, developers, etc.
From the history of the development of human beings and computer science, we can see that collaboration is the most powerful key to establishing great achievements and selfless is needed by the work for our human world.
Anyway, Open Source is leading the trend of software development to a new promising way. It comes to its spring days. Open Source Era is coming and it will change our life greatly. Open Source is sentenced to be the future of computer science.
Ⅳ. Thinking in Open Source
Open Source was first put forward to give people freedom. The programmers sacrificed a lot, with the aim of contributing to the world. In the process of Open Source, some points should be paid special attention to.
ⅰ.Business Model
Although the aim is contributing to the world, the developers need to make money with the software. A new business model needs to be built on the base of Open Source.
There are some problems in the process. First, the software is easy to be copied by others. And also, without effective Intellectual property, the software is hard to be protected. We need some rules protecting the software. Thirdly, human resource is important for a huge project. Computer elites are badly needed to support an Open Source project.
Anyway, Open Source is a cheap way of software development. With the unique advantage of Open Source, the programmers will surely create a new business model in the future. The spring of Open Source will be an active, effective, and coordinate day.
ⅱ. Collaboration
Measuring a huge project means always keeping a good collaboration between the programmers. The programmers should keep a constant communication between each other. What they are expected is help instead of competition.
ⅲ. Clear Aims
Every step needs a clear aim in Open Source projects’ plans. The programmers should decide clearly of what to achieve by developing their software. The importance of a clear aim can’t be ignored.
ⅳ. Propaganda
People need to know Open Source. So it will be a hard job for Open Source projects’ leaders to make the world know their projects. Open Source has a long way to go. They need followers who encourage and help them to achieve more. People need Open Source, and Open Source needs people.
Statistics
ⅰ. OS Family Share in Top 500 PCs (06/2009)
| OS Family | Count | Share |
| Linux | 443 | 88.60 % |
| Windows | 5 | 1.00 % |
| Unix | 22 | 4.40 % |
| BSD Based | 1 | 0.20 % |
| Mixed | 29 | 5.80 % |
(Pay attention to the gray area)
The statistics is the share of the operating systems in Top 500 high performance computers. It shows that Linux has been the main OS for top computers. Also, it reflected that Linux has high performance. (Data from Top500.org)
ⅱ. Net Applications Survey Data of Web Browser (05/2009)
| Firefox (Mozilla) | 22.5% | IE (Microsoft) | 66.1% |
| Chrome (Google) | 1.4% | Safari (Mac OS) | 8.2% |
(Please look at the gray area)
In the survey, our Open Source software Firefox made a not-small share. Analysts say that Firefox is on a rapid developing way. The number of downloads on Mozilla.Com has increased to more than one billion. A report in 2007 shows that there’re 27.8% Europeans set Firefox as their default web browser. By the time going by, Firefox is becoming more and more widely used all over the world.
With the development of Open Source technology, more and more people will recognize the great charm of it. Open source is truly changing our world. (Data from Net Applications)
ⅲ. TIOBE Programming Community Index (08/2009 Top 10)
| Position | Language Name | Position | Language Name |
| 1 | Java | 6 | Python |
| 2 | C | 7 | C# |
| 3 | C++ | 8 | Perl |
| 4 | PHP | 9 | JavaScript |
| 5 | (Visual) Basic | 10 | Ruby |
(Gray area shows Open Source projects)
Open Source really brings us great tools to create new wonders. Most of the programming languages on the list are Open Source. From the list, we can see that without Open Source, man will lost much of their ability in developing and constructing. (Data from Tiobe.Com)
ⅳ. Surveys of Database Software Market
A survey in 2006 shows that Oracle is still the boss of database software market. And good news is that Open Source database software is becoming more and more popular among the customers.
IDC and Gartner Company searched with a long time in the market of database software and the statistics shows that Open Source database software is becoming a trend. The growth rate of Open Source database software in market in 2005 is 47%. It reflects the big importance in market of Open Source database software. They also find that MySQL maybe the biggest threat to Oracle. (Data from Yesky.Com)
Another survey is carried out in 2006 by Forrester Company. Some senior analysts revealed that the cost of using Open Source database software can cut down about 60% comparing to a commercial one. They tell us that Open Source database software is not located in low-end market. So in the future, we will expect more Open Source database projects. (Data from Vnunet.Com)
The most famous Open Source database software MySQL had owned 25% of the market at the beginning of 2008. The statistics was published by Vans Data Corporation, which was a third-party research agency. They concluded that MySQL had already been installed 11 million times, and it is downloaded 50 thousand times per day on its website. (Data from Evans Data Corp. Research)
ⅴ. Market Share in OS Field (08/2009)
| Windows | 93.18% | MacOS | 4.73% | Linux | 1.17% |
(Some data has been omitted)
There’s a chart showing the statistics intuitively below.
The recent data shows that Windows is still the most-used OS in the market. And the usage of Linux is keeping growing. Open Source is a new technology. It need some time for the world to adjust to it. Linux is as good as Windows, and what it need is just some time. (Data from Net Applications)
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