David A. Wheeler's Blog

Sun, 06 Mar 2005

March 2005 release of “Why OSS/FS? Look at the Numbers!”

For March - another release of “Why Open Source Software / Free Software (OSS/FS, FLOSS, FOSS)? Look at the Numbers!” I made many changes, here are some of the highlights:

  1. I modified the introduction section to create subsections in it (it was getting too long to read without some breaking up). Since I was modifying the intro anyway, I added to it some evidence that this paper is worth reading (e.g., the reference to it by the state of California). I highlighted “commons-based peer production” Coase’s Penguin, a new reference, as part of a new section on the “bigger picture”. I also mentioned there the “freedom to tinker” and Wikipedia.
  2. Added reference to Bruce Perens’ The Emerging Economic Paradigm of Open Source
  3. Added reference to Black Duck presentation on OSS/FS
  4. Added a quote from Craig Mundie, who in a moment of honesty admitted that for many years Microsoft had been much more interested in functionality than security. Hopefully this is changing, but I believe it’ll take years to really address that. In any case, I think this explains much of where they’ve been, though hopefully not where they’re going.
  5. Noted Novell/SUSE met CAPP/EAL4+, according to Government Computer News.
  6. Added references to some common starting places, such as the OpenCD (with OpenOffice.org and Firefox), Gnoppix, Knoppix.
  7. Tweaked the text about self-sponsored “studies”, which I don’t have a lot of respect for. I noted a wonderful Steve Taylor phrase from the song “Meat the Press” — it’s a phrase I always think of when I think about that text. It is: “They can state the facts while telling a lie.”
  8. Changed any “Open Office” to “OpenOffice.org”. The latter is the official name, due to trademark issues.

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