OPEN FORCES - Monthly Global Free and Open Source Software Updates Newsletter

OPEN FORCES - 
Monthly Global Free and Open Source Software Updates Newsletter

By Fouad Riaz Bajwa, your everyday friendly FOSS Advocate

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Monthly Quote: "And they thought we FOSS advocates were joking!"

November Features

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* French Parliament: Au Revoir Windows, Bonjour Linux

* New Thai IT Minister Rubbishes Open Source

* Thai FOSS Community Responds to IT Minister

* Looking to the long term

* French MPs dump Windows for Linux

* Birmingham City Council claims open-source success

* Pakistan looks to free software 

* Nepalese NGO Releases NepaLinux 1.1

* FOSS.IN India A Grand Success

* Free and Open Source Software gets new 'poster girl' 

* Philippine Law Mandates Use of Open Source in Government

* Tarique Sani, once a doc now software expert

* Bill Gates talks Vista and Linux 

* Microsoft and Novell clash over patents 

* MPs: Open source faces exclusion in schools

* TOF-E Survey The OpenForum Europe 

* Sun releases Java as open-source project 

* Open source and the mass market

* Big Three Search Engines Back Single, Open Protocol

* Linux Adoption (Wikipedia)

White Papers:

* Exploiting the Potential of Linux - CA

* TCO for Application Servers: Comparing Linux with Windows and Solaris -
Robert Frances Group

Story of the Month: 

* Free software's Faustian moment 


Now here we go!


French Parliament: Au Revoir Windows, Bonjour Linux

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By Jay Lyman | LinuxInsider | 11/28/06 3:42 PM PT 
The French parliament this week announced plans to move from Windows to
Linux by the middle of 2007. Come next June, roughly 1,150 desktop PCs will
be running on Linux and open source software. The move comes on the heels of
Linux adoption by other French government agencies; cost savings reportedly
is the primary motivation for the switch from Windows to open source.
http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/54462.html


New Thai IT Minister Rubbishes Open Source

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After just over a month in office, Thailands new ICT minister Professor
Sitthichai Pokai-udom has declared the current government focus on Free and
Open Source Software a case of the blind leading the blind.
http://www.localfoss.org/New_Thai_IT_Minister_Rubbishes_Open_Source


Thai FOSS Community Responds to IT Minister

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An Open Letter to the Thai IT Minister has been released in response to his
claims that Free and Open Source Software is lacking in IP and offers
Thailand no value. I've reproduced an english translation below.
http://www.localfoss.org/Thai_FOSS_Community_Responds_to_IT_Minister


Looking to the long term

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Maxwell Cooter | Techworld | November 30, 2006 
You don't have to be a Linux fanatic to give three cheers to Birmingham
Council. Three cheers because the council's decision to proceed with a trial
of open-source software- even though an independent report said it was the
cheaper option - is gratifying for three reasons. 
http://www.techworld.com/applications/blogs/index.cfm?blogid=4&entryid=324


French MPs dump Windows for Linux

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Christophe Guillemin | ZDNet France | Published: 27 Nov 2006 09:03 GMT
After the gendarmes and the Ministry of Culture, it's French MPs' turn to
switch to open source. From June 2007, PCs in French députés' offices will
be equipped with a Linux operating system and open source productivity
software. The project, backed by MPs Richard Cazenav and Bernard Carayon of
the UMP party, will see 1,154 French parliamentary workstations running on
an open source OS, with OpenOffice.org, Firefox and an open source email
client.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39284863,00.htm


Birmingham City Council claims open-source success

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Matthew Broersma | Techworld
Birmingham City Council has defended its year-long trial of desktop Linux,
claiming it to be a success, despite an independent report showing it would
have been cheaper to install Windows XP. 
http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?newsid=7459


Pakistan looks to free software 

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Frederick Noronha | 8 November, 2006 
Pakistan, a country often criticised for software piracy, is looking at free
and open source software as a way to transform its image and build local
skills. 
http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?id=1262


Nepalese NGO Releases NepaLinux 1.1

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The Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya, a non-government organisation that describes
itself as the "principal archive of books and periodicals in the nepali
language", has released version 1.1 of NepaLinux.
http://www.localfoss.org/NepaLinux_1._1_Released


FOSS.IN India A Grand Success
Geeks and coders get support from government, corporations

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Frederick Noronha | Indo Asian News Service | Bangalore, Nov 26 (IANS)
It was started as a movement of long-haired geeks and coders, but today the
Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) network is now seeing some big
corporate names and government institutions backing it with funding and
support in various ways. FOSS.in, the premier national event of the Free and
Open Source Software community, held here over the weekend, drew support
from web giant Google and software giant Sun Microsystems, with India's
ministry of communications and information technology as its principal
sponsor.
http://foss4us.org/ians....


Free and Open Source Software gets new 'poster girl'  

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Bangalore |Nov 28 | (IANS)  
India's Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) movement just has got a new
poster-boy, or rather girl -- Suparna Bhattacharya, the star of the
just-concluded FOSS.in event held here and presenter of the inaugural
keynote, is seen as one of India's most respected Linux kernel developers.
http://www.southasianews.com/112611/Free-and-Open-Source-Software-gets-new-p
oster-girl-.htm
Do read: Opening Doors to Open Source For Women
http://www.itmanagersjournal.com/feature/20990
HOWTO Encourage Women in Linux  http://infohost.nmt.edu/~val/howto.html


Philippine Law Mandates Use of Open Source in Government 

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Officials in the Philippines have introduced a bill mandating the use of
open source software and open standards in all government programs. The law
would make proprietary software appropriate only when a proprietary system
is already in place and there is no available open source alternative, this
piece says.  http://www.itbusinessedge.com/item/?ci=20191
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/item/?ci=20191
Must Read: Open Source Becoming Increasingly Attractive To Governments
http://www.idm.net.au/story.asp?id=7467


Tarique Sani, once a doc now software expert

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For Paediatrician turned software expert Dr Tarique Sani passion has
overruled profession. After practising medicine for over ten years Dr Sani
shifted to his primary love -- software programming and since 2000 onwards
is pursuing his passion through the SANI Soft Technology Pvt Ltd along with
his wife Swati Sani. 
http://news.hitavadaonline.com/news/index.php?mode=single&page=10&n=11473


Bill Gates talks Vista and Linux 

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CNET - Bill Gates is pretty confident that when he spots an emerging
technology, it will emerge. Exactly when that happens, though, is sometimes
a question mark.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39284778,00.htm


Microsoft and Novell clash over patents 

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Richard Thurston | ZDNet UK 
Novell and Microsoft have clashed over the question of whether Linux
infringes Microsoft's intellectual property, just 18 days into their
controversial partnership. Earlier this month the two companies formed an
alliance to "improve interoperability" between Windows and Novell's Suse
Linux. This includes Microsoft offering Novell products to customers who
wish to deploy a mixed proprietary/open-source environment. As part of a
complicated series of payments, Novell is also paying Microsoft $40m to
ensure Microsoft won't sue Suse customers for patent infringement.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39284802,00.htm
The crazy fight:
http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10004553o-2000331777b,00.htm
http://www.novell.com/linux/microsoft/community_open_letter.html
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/nov06/11-20Statement.mspx
http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2006/112106-ballmer-linux.html?fsrc=rss-linux
-news


MPs: Open source faces exclusion in schools

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Richard Thurston ZDNet UK | Published: 27 Nov 2006 14:37 GMT
A group of MPs have accused a government agency of restricting schools from
deploying open-source software. Nineteen MPs, led by former teacher John
Pugh, are backing a parliamentary motion which claims that Becta (British
Educational Communications and Technology Agency), the government's advisors
on the use of ICT in education, is using outdated frameworks which exclude
suppliers of open source software
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39284874,00.htm


TOF-E Survey The OpenForum Europe 

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- TOFE - is creating a marketplace where buyers and suppliers of Open Source
Software and Open Solutions can meet and do business. Background Reference:
Breakthrough For Open Source Software in Europe The Open Forum Europe Press
Release 15.11.05 
A consortium of companies in Denmark, the UK and Ireland, working with
campaign group Open Forum Europe, has won a prestigious contract to promote
open source software throughout the 25 member states of the European Union.
The consortium has eighteen months to set up a series of portals to help
small companies, entrepreneurs, councils and governments to see how using
open source rather than branded software can save them money and improve
their security. 
http://survey.tofe.ie/
http://www.openireland.org/sections/survey/tof-e-press-release/


Sun releases Java as open-source project 

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The Associated Press | Published : November 13, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO: Computer server and software maker Sun Microsystems said
Monday that it had begun to make its Java technology an open-source software
project available for free on the Internet. The announcement represents one
of the largest additions of computer code to the open-source community - and
it marks a major shift for a company that had once fiercely protected the
source code used in 3.8 billion cell phones, supercomputers, medical devices
and other gadgets.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/13/business/web.1113sun.php


Open source and the mass market

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ZDNET - Why isn't open source stronger in the mass market? There have been
free programs that are strong in the mass market. Firefox is one. OpenOffice
is another. Linux is a third. But in each case we're mainly talking about
altruism motivating the provider, and we're not talking about big market
share. The folks who get value out of such products (I am one) don't need
support. We muddle through on our own.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=803


Big Three Search Engines Back Single, Open Protocol

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By Jennifer LeClaire | TechNewsWorld | 11/17/06 2:32 PM PT 
Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have put aside their rivalry in the search
business to agree on an open protocol designed to make it easier for all of
their search technologies to extract information from Web sites. Sitemaps
0.90 allows webmasters to universally submit their content in a uniform
manner.


Linux Adoption  

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  
Linux adoption refers to the uptake of the Linux operating system by homes,
organisations and governments. Linux migration refers to the change over to
Linux from other operating systems.  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_adoption

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Whitepapers:

Exploiting the Potential of Linux - CA

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Why Linux is the right alternative for organizations seeking to optimize
resources and improve service as well as the challenges presented in
integrating Linux into a heterogeneous IT environment.
Exploiting the potential of LInux white paper.pdf (PDF document 77Kb) 
http://www.opensourceacademy.org.uk/solutions/whitepapers/exploiting-the-pot
ential-of-linux-ca/file


TCO for Application Servers: Comparing Linux with Windows and Solaris
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Robert Frances Group
A TCO data quantitative analysis to highlight current operating system
experiences of Windows, Solaris and Linux.
RobertFrancesGroupLinuxTCOAnalysis05 .pdf (PDF document 177Kb)
http://www.opensourceacademy.org.uk/solutions/whitepapers/tco-for-applicatio
n-servers/file



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Story of the Month! 

Free software's Faustian moment 

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SANTEC Educational Technology for Development http://www.santecnetwork.org
Felix Cohen | Becky Hogge | 21 - 11 - 2006 

A recent deal between Microsoft and Novell has ignited the long- smouldering
controversy about whether code can be owned. Is it the first step towards a
two-tier software economy? 

Free Software is big business. This may come as a surprise to those whose
understanding of open source software development practice ends at the
caffeinated hacker contributing code in the small hours from the comfort of
his bedroom. But in between this, and the fact that five of the ten most
reliable web hosters run their sites on the open source operating system
Linux, is the story of an industry of support and bespoke development that
gives the major corporations running this software the products and peace of
mind they need to conduct business on a grand scale.

Although desktop users may prefer distributions of Linux, such as Ubuntu,
which are free (as in beer) as well as free (as in freedom), those,
including openDemocracy, whose businesses rely on the software they use to
serve products and services on the web and maintain internal development
platforms and networks, often pay for "enterprise" Linux distributions, such
as Red Hat's Fedora or Novell's SuSe. Unlike their proprietary colleagues at
Microsoft, who make money licensing owned code, fees paid to Novell and
RedHat by those choosing to buy "enterprise" in Linux go towards regular
support and security updates. Net profits from Linux-related sales at each
company run into the tens of millions. Thus an open pool of shared knowledge
fosters a vibrant knowledge economy around its edges.

But recently, companies like Red Hat and Novell have had to consider a new
kind of security to offer to their enterprise clients - safety from
litigation under intellectual property law. In the United States, two major
branches of intellectual property law obtain when it comes to software. The
first is copyright, which covers the lines of source code that make up
particular programs, and is neatly dealt with by the GNU general public
licence (GPL), the "copyleft" agreement under which most deployments of
Linux are distributed. The second is the pernicious practice, rife in the US
but so far (the story goes) resisted in the European Union, of patenting
methods of coding.

Software patents, that American folly of propertising what are often
basically mathematical algorithms, are an interesting problem for Free
Software. Microsoft in particular claims that Linux code violates a number
of patents currently held at Redmond. Although Microsoft will not be drawn
on exactly what those patents are, enterprise Linux distributors see the
claim as a way for Microsoft to distort the market and scare their
customers. The fear is that, should Microsoft choose to reveal the alleged
patent infringements, it could sue not only them, but also their customers.

In 2004, in response to a controversial series of cases against Linux, Red
Hat introduced their Open Source Assurance programme, which puts the onus of
resolving intellectual property issues squarely on their, and not their
customers', shoulders. Over the last few weeks, Novell have unveiled their
own strategy for insuring their customers against the menace of Redmond
lawyers. The result has had the Free and Open Source Software community
(often abbreviated to FLOSS, where the rogue `L' stands for "libre", the
"free as in freedom" so important to FLOSS coders) up in arms.

On 2 November, Novell and Microsoft announced a "broad collaboration on
Windows and Linux interoperability and support". The main aim was to provide
reassurance and support to companies that required Linux and Windows to
operate on the same hardware, in so- called "virtualisation" environments.
But the small print revealed a patent licensing agreement and mutual
covenant not to sue over patent infringements. This, many feared, would give
Microsoft vital fresh ammunition for its steady fire of unsubstantiated
claims that Linux infringes Microsoft's patents. In effect, Microsoft had
asked Novell the classic loaded question "when did you stop beating your
wife?", and Novell had unwisely attempted an answer.

The same day Dana Gardner at ZDNet penned a headline which, if there is any
justice, will go down in history "Microsoft and Novell: Fox marries chicken,
both move into henhouse". Influential legal/open source blog Groklaw.net
pronounced that "those of you who think the most important goal is market
share will be happy. Those of you who think freedom matters will want to
throw up." Their fears were borne out on 16 November, when Steve Ballmer,
Microsoft's CEO, reiterated his belief, in the context of the Novell deal,
that Linux "uses our intellectual property" to a conference audience in
Seattle.

Pleas for Novell to reconsider the deal came from far and wide. They
included a 12 November statement from the Samba community, a team of
programmers working to provide a free alternative to a vital protocol, which
labelled the decision divisive, and as such counter to the goals of the
FLOSS community. They accused Novell of "exchanging the long term interests
of the entire Free Software community for a short term advantage for Novell
over their competitors". Novell was exploiting the work of others to get
ahead in the market.

Interestingly, this is an outcome the GPL was specifically designed to
prevent. Originally, the threat had been copyright law - the GPL is designed
to cling to any code derived from Free Software in order to ensure that it
too is free, in a so-called "viral" legal arrangement. But the GPL also
speaks to patents, as its preamble makes clear:

"[A]ny free program is threatened constantly by software patents. We wish to
avoid the danger that redistributors of a free program will individually
obtain patent licenses, in effect making the program proprietary. To prevent
this, we have made it clear that any patent must be licensed for everyone's
free use or not licensed at all."

The hope is that, since Novell will be unable to freely pass on patent
licenses granted it by Microsoft to any or all who may want to use its code,
its ability to deploy the GPL will be compromised, and with it its ability
to use GPL'ed code. This would render the deal with Microsoft untenable, as
it would prevent Novell from going about its core business of distributing
SuSe.

Could the GPL work to ensure against the disruption of patents too? 
It seems that Eben Moglen, General Counsel for the Free Software Foundation,
who has been working with Richard Stallman on a revised version of the GPL
for some time, thinks so. Speaking to Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier of Linux.com
last Friday, he confirmed that he has received "full and unfettered access
to senior executives at Novell" and was now involved in negotiations which
hinged around the deal's compatibility with the GPL.

The Novell/Microsoft deal could divide the FLOSS community into those who
code for profit, and those who code for fun. In their 2 November statement,
Novell and Microsoft stated that "Microsoft will not assert its patents
against individual non-commercial open source developers". Read this
statement closely and it speaks to a future where FLOSS code development is
split down the middle, where amateurs tinker and professionals profit. 

Interestingly, this same future has recently been hinted at by another
figurehead of free culture, Lawrence Lessig. On 28 September this year, the
Creative Commons pioneer wrote a short blog post entitled "On the economies
of culture". In it, he argues that "the Internet has reminded us that we
live not just in one economy, but at least two". One was the common or
garden "work for pay" economy, the second that embodied in Wikipedia, which
went by a variety of names, including "amateur" and "non-commercial". These
were "separate spheres", argued Lessig, but ones that could and should be
linked, in order "to inspire the creative work of the second economy, while
also expanding the value of the commercial economy".

Creative Commons already offers different licences for those who wish to
share content on a non-commercial basis, and those who are happy to share
with profit-making entities who may go on to gain financially from their
work. Indeed, I have often been quizzed by free culture enthusiasts as to
why openDemocracy opts for a non- commercial Creative Commons licence (the
answer is we want to profit from syndication to newspapers, to compensate
poorly paid contributors and to earn money we can invest back into our
work).

In his post, Lessig dismisses anticipated objections to his theory from
advocates of total freedom as "simply ignoring an important reality about
the difference between these two economies". Perhaps this is because what
both Lessig's argument and, more importantly, the Microsoft/Novell deal
appear to ignore, is that many opt for Creative Commons or GPL licensing as
a means to object to intellectual property regimes currently in place. 

The "important reality" of the commercial economy is one that many would
like to subvert, not graduate into, whether they object to the cultural
homogeneity of Big Media, or the anti-competitiveness and creative
stagnation of Big Software. Furthermore, the distinction between commercial
and non-commercial is not at all clear cut: as Lessig himself admits, FLOSS
has shown that what starts out as the non-commercial work of "amateurs" can
move into a professional, commercial setting without giving up on its
copyleft principles.

And let's hope things stay that way. Novell have asked for patience from
FLOSS stakeholders while they craft a response to the Sambas team's
objections. Hoping to scare off Microsoft, Eben Moglen is threatening to use
the new version of the GPL to permanently isolate any commercial Linux
distributor tempted to enter into similar patent licensing agreements. What
looked on the face of things as a simple business deal has turned into a
game of brinkmanship faster than you can say Free and Open Source Software.
The future of the movement hangs in the balance.

[Compiled by Fouad Riaz Bajwa - FOSS Advocate for the whole world!]

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