[LINUX:2366] FWD: ZDNN: Open source gathering steam (fwd)

Mustafa Akgul (akgul@bilkent.edu.tr)
Tue, 8 Dec 1998 21:13:53 +0200 (EET)


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By Matthew Broersma, ZDNN
[TABLE NOT SHOWN] It was perhaps coincidental that both Netscape
Communications Corp. and IBM chose the same day to release source code
for their respective products on the Internet.

Coincidence, but no accident.

Increasingly, companies are viewing open source code releases as a
cheap and easy way to enlist legions -- numbering in the thousands --
of new developers to their cause.

On Monday, Netscape (Nasdaq:NSCP) released the source code for its
next-generation browser, code-named Gecko. At the same time, IBM
(NYSE:IBM) announced it will release the source code of its Jikes Java
compiler.

Tuesday, Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq:SUNW)will announce changes to
its licensing policies that will open the code to all comers, and
allow licensees to to develop compatable Java clones. Netscape made
headlines earlier this year when it announced it would release the
closely-guarded "source code" programming of its popular Navigator
browser to the public, so that anyone could alter it and contribute to
the further development of the software.

Links to Linux
The move was a calculated gambit by Netscape management that it had
more to gain by "opening" up its source code than by keeping it
proprietary. Executives looked to the example of other collaborative
(or "open source") development efforts popularized by the Web server
Apache and by Linux, an open-source duplicate of the Unix operating
system.

While such projects were once the province of enthusiasts, they are
receiving increasing attention from the business world, analysts say.

Linux, in particular, has benefited from the Department of Justice's
anti-trust trial against Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT), where it has
been presented as an alternative to Microsoft's Windows operating
system.

Small businesses and even enterprises are creating increasing demand
for Linux applications, and those applications are beginning to
appear, analysts say.

Enterprise tools for Linux became more common after IBM, Oracle Corp.
(Nasdaq:ORCL), Sybase Inc. (Nasdaq:SYBS) and other database players
endorsed the operating system earlier this year.

An enterprise-level support structure is still lacking for the OS,
however, analysts said.

"What we're seeing there is not a mature, but an active development
community," said analyst Chris LeToq with Dataquest. "The challenge in
the Linux space is ... the need for communities which focus on system
management, to provide the services that need to be available on top
of Linux."

Will it play in Corporate America?
But if open-source development is to have a future with businesses,
organizations will have to find ways of providing technical support.

"What's missing is an entity on the other end of the index finger who
the IT manager needs to point to and say 'it's broke, you fix it,' "
said analyst Martin Marshall, with Zona Research.

Marshall said groups such as Red Hat, which do offer support for Linux
or other open-source projects, show "there is a momentum" for the
methodology.

Gecko includes essential contributions from open-source collaborators,
including an XML parser designed by James Clark. Its support for the
cascading style sheets standard was bug-checked by the inventor of
style sheets, Hakon Lie.

"Where [open source has] been most effective is in building Gecko at a
very rapid pace," said Angus Davis, Netscape product manager for
Gecko. "It has features like complete standards support and high
performance that we would not have been able to develop as quickly
without open-source contributions."

He said 200,000 copies of the Navigator source code have been
downloaded since March.

The open source methodology could give Netscape an advantage in how
quickly it can incorporate new features into its browser, but
observers said it is still too early to tell how successful the
company will be.

"The benefit of it is that it produces a parallel development
environment," said LeToq. "You can take advances other people and
developers are making and incorporate them into the core application.
The question is whether Netscape has got its development group to the
point where that's going to happen."

Linux, Apache and Netscape's open-source projects are by far the most
prominent, but other open-source projects have showed signs of
promise.

For example, NewHoo, an open-source directory, has grown to include
over 100,000 sites in only a few months. The volunteer-built site was
acquired by Netscape, and will be renamed Open Directory Project.

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