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Feature: Open Source
TheOpenCD First Edition Launch
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CommentsTheOpenCD project started with two articles on NewsForge in April of this year. The idea was to make a compilation of mature open source software (OSS) for windows users as an easy introduction to OSS. The project was inspired by a question which is frequently asked in Linux forums: "Given that we now have this fast, secure, desktop-ready, free OS, why doesn't everyone switch?"
Well, the answer is complex, but includes elements like:
- It is a major hurdle for an intermediate user to scrap their entire OS to try an unknown system, filled with strangely named applications like "grep."
- Most people do not care which OS they use, but rather what their programs can do, and there is a perception that Linux apps are not as capable as those in Windows.
- Microsoft's OS bundling has been extremely successful encourages people to regard their current OS as free (as in beer).
- Software piracy, while apparently depriving proprietary software makers of profits, in fact simply serves to cement the commercial products as "the standard," by making home users familiar with these packages, and by locking everyone into proprietary file formats.
These cover the largest and most commonly cited reasons. The first two of these points are the most serious: the perception of Linux applications as difficult to use, hard to learn, and inadequate to their tasks encourages people to continue buying (or pirating) Microsoft products, not just Windows, but also Office.
TheOpenCD aims to attack the issue on these first two points, by providing end users with access to a collection of Open Source programs that run under Windows, that compare favorably to proprietary competitors, and are reasonably easy to use. By encouraging people to adopt open programs in the comfortable familiarity of their existing OS, the project hopes to persuade them that open source programs are just as good as the ones they already use. Once they've seen how well it works in their current environment, switching to a totally open environment later on will be easier.
To this end, the disc is aimed squarely at non-techies. The primary audience is expected to consist mostly of people who use computers regularly for their work, but are not power users. That said, the disc will probably appeal first to power users, who will hopefully find it a useful vehicle by which to introduce OSS to their less computer-savvy friends.
The Disc
As you might expect, the headline acts on the CD are OpenOffice.org, AbiWord and Beonex, with other solid programs such as WinVNC, Audacity, and Celestia in supporting roles. Many will doubtlessly be surprised and outraged at the exclusion of their favorite program. (Dare we mention Mozilla, or The Gimp?) In each case, however, there is a good reason for the exclusion. In the case of Mozilla, for example, the mozilla.org developers contacted the project and specifically asked that Mozilla not be included, because their binaries are provided for testing purposes only. As the project lacked the technical resources necessary to customize Mozilla, it was not included. The next version is likely to have a slightly different line-up, and the program review process for this is now beginning.
TheOpenCD features a CD browser application that allows for easy browsing of the programs on the CD. It also includes a selection of essays about Open Source philosophy, and links to other programs that might be of interest.
A Community Effort
In addition to being an introduction to OSS for novice users, this project also has the potential for being an introduction to open source community participation for intermediate users. While most OSS project primarily have a need for developers, testers, and debuggers (as do we), TheOpenCD also needs contributers to review candidate applications, write supporting documentation where appropriate, assist novice users in the forums, and finally spread the disc far and wide! However, this wide range of possible modes of contributions to the project is a double edged sword, as soon became apparent.
Probably the most difficult part of the creation of the disc was selecting which programs would be included. There are literally hundreds of Open Source projects that run under Windows. A surge of interest followed the initial announcement of the project, and a great many programs were named -- sometimes a single visitor could reel off as many as a dozen different programs that ought to go on the disc. Having established a fairly rigorous set of criteria, we set about evaluating the programs that had been named -- and this is where the project got bogged down. There were too many programs, and too few people reviewing them to see if they met the standards. As the review process dragged on, people started losing interest, and the project nearly died of apathy.
Another problem the project suffered from was fragmentation of resources. At one point, we had two mailing lists, and IRC channel, and a forum. The developers stuck mostly to the mailing list, and the program reviewers mainly to the forum. As a result, the few developers never had any idea what was going on with the program selection process, and the program reviewers had no idea whether there would actually be a CD browser app as planned. Eventually, all the developers got fed up and left.
The way forward has been to tighten frames of participation somewhat, as can be seen in the program suggestion process. In order to quench the flow of spurious program nominations, we now require that you do a full review for each program you want to nominate: you can still nominate any program you wish, you just have to give us a selection of detailed information about how well it meets our standards and why it's so great. In this way, the effort of reviewing all those programs is spread evenly across the community. We have also divested ourself of the mailing list, and communicate mainly using a forum, with occasional emails on the side.
The project welcomes anyone who would like to participate. Program nominations for our second edition are welcome; please refer to the nomination guidelines. In addition, we need:
- Developers! Currently our CD browser app is written in Visual Basic 4. This is a bug, not a feature, and we want to replace it in the next edition with something else. We are especially interested in writing a XUL-based CD browser, for its ease of customization to other non-English languages (which is planned).
- Mirrors! If you would like to host a mirror for TheOpenCD, please email us or drop by our forum. Currently the ISO is just under 300 MB, and could conceivably grow to a full 700 MB.
- Artists! We would love to be able to provide some printable CD labels and covers. The CD is meant to be an evangelism tool; first impressions count, and a blank labelled in felt-tip marker just doesn't make the same sort of impression as a clean, professional- looking label. There is also a need for a range of clean and consistent artwork for the next installer and web-pages.
To ensure that we now stay on track as the project matures towards the second edition, we would encourage project participants to prepare installer code, artwork or documentation to some level of minimum functionality (alpha) before submitting it to the wider community for discussion and testing. In that way the discussions can center around actual viable contributions and not merely plans, of which there are plenty :)
Finally, we hope of you will find this first edition of TheOpenCD useful and that many in the community will join us in raising the second edition to new heights!
Comments
on TheOpenCD First Edition LaunchNote: Comments are owned by the poster. We are not responsible for their content.
I have also worked at a large bank, and they also have strict requirements on the software that can be used. Its not FUD, its a fact that people (like the programmers that work there) have to deal with. Do you even know what FUD means?
Of course, given corporate culture, as a programmer, you probably don't have direct access to the lawyers. Same old situation - I can make this company better, but nobody listens to me, because I'm just some low-down who knows nothing about the business (apart from what the problem is and how to fix it:)
Then how does your bank react to <A HREF="http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnnetdep/html/redisteula.asp">this standard liability disclaimer on Microsoft software</a microsoft.com>:
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY AND REMEDIES. NOTWITHSTANDING ANY DAMAGES THAT YOU MIGHT INCUR FOR ANY REASON WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ALL DAMAGES REFERENCED ABOVE AND ALL DIRECT OR GENERAL DAMAGES), THE ENTIRE LIABILITY OF MICROSOFT AND ANY OF ITS SUPPLIERS UNDER ANY PROVISION OF THIS SUPPLEMENTAL EULA AND YOUR EXCLUSIVE REMEDY FOR ALL OF THE FOREGOING SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF THE AMOUNT ACTUALLY PAID BY YOU FOR THE OS COMPONENTS OR U.S.$5.00. THE FOREGOING LIMITATIONS, EXCLUSIONS AND DISCLAIMERS SHALL APPLY TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, EVEN IF ANY REMEDY FAILS ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE.
But, we've pushed thru ActiveState Perl as a commercial product since it's supported and we can sue if it's not as advertised.
Like Microsoft software, the ActivePerl distribution comes with a <A HREF="http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/license_agreement.plex">license agreement</a activestate.com> that disclaims all warranties on the software:
5. THIS PACKAGE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS
OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Normally they've left as they are in the Americano version when sold outside U.S., but in several countries -- including almost all Scandinavian countries -- there are Supreme Court rulings that state simply that disclaimers don't have _ANY_ meaning legally, whatsoever.
So, yes. You can sue Microsoft in most of the countries if you can prove that Windoze was the one to blame when your company's accounting material "disappeared", etc..
You cant sue mcdonalds for $400000 for serving too hot coffee.
If you sue, and win, you only get what you should get.
We dont sue each other for a living here.
about all the software on the CD. In fact, that would be an idea for the project - collect contact information for companies that support the various packages.
Anyway - it always tickles my funny bone when PHBs say they will not touch FOSS programs. Better tell them to cut off Internet access, and throw out Oracle, if you are using that.
Oracle uses several GNU programs in their installation and documentation packages.
(Imagining PHB raising fist, first and fourth finger stretched out: Avert! Anathema sit! ROFL )
Out of interest, can you name them?
<A HREF="http://otn.oracle.com/docs/products/ias/doc_library/90200doc_otn/web.902/a92173/license.htm"> Here you go...</a oracle.com>
Enjoy!
it would not surprise me if they start to offer Redhat or some other easy dist, as an free alternative to windows. on any of their computers, not just their servers.
apologies for any misspellings and typos.
Aleksander Wistrand
It eases help from others, sharing of common files, etc.
In a micro-economics course, I was taught that a stable equilibrium can exist where (almost) everyone uses an actually unfavourable system, just because others do so too. Switching is considered more 'costly' because it makes you 'an exception'.
In any case, this CD lowers the barrier for switching and therefore I'm glad it exists!
In this case, though, OS compatability is not an issue - the users maintiain the Windows OS (for worse or worse) but gain Free / Open Source Software (for better or worse).
The gain is that the software is free, but OOo does not claim 100% compatability with MS Office (though I've found no compatability problems (under Linux) using either OpenOffice.org 1.0.x or StarOffice 6.0 since OOo1.0.0 was first released). So there is a potential loss there in your MicroEconomics-101 lingo.
Surely this CD most benefits those enterprises (typically small firms?) who do not have huge amounts of MS Word Macros / Intranets tested only with Internet Explorer. They can certainly benefit from such a CD - easily packaged, free replacement for existing software.
Let's not forget, though, (fond as I am of Free Software) that many are tied to MS proprietary formats - not just the OS, the one useful thing Windows does (file/print sharing) has been replicated transparently by SAMBA - but the MS Applications.
I have always held that, while MS do have a monopoly on the OS, their strongest side is still their applications - MS Office is at least as good as StarOffice/OOo, and IE (security flaws aside) is almost as good as Mozilla 1.x.
Where users are tied to MS Office by macros, and IE by non-standard Intranets, they can't really get much out of this CD. And let's face it, most *large* users are in this situation.
The SMEs (Small / Medium Enterprises) are a great target for this CD, though - throw it on the front of a few prominent Power-User PC magazines, and a lot of SMEs could save a fortune, realise the power and savings of Free/OpenSource Software, leading to (my ultimate goal):
More users -> more feedback -> some useful feedback -> better software -> better software for all!
I can see why they might not want people to use Mozilla, many of them being employed by Nescape but still this doesn't make any sense and I'm somewhat disappointed by it's omission.
to see all the enourmous work around bringing linux to the gui and desktop.
I love unix and linux. But usually for my "personal conmputer" I use 98SE.
My reson is simple. My hardware is old,
233 with 128MB RAM. I only use it to communicate.
I check my email, store some important files, use excel to pay bills and such. I also keep a backup of my important files via ftp on my linux servers.
Recently I purchased Lindows just to see what that was about. I was giving a used "upgrade" computer by my employees because they felt sorry for me. This had a celeron 533 with 256MB RAM and a 18.9GB SCSI drive. It had all intergrated video, sound, NIC. It had no OS on it. So I grabed my handy little win98SE CD. And installed it. To my surprise it didn't find video, sound or nic. After taking the thing apart to do driver research I spent the next several hours looking for these drives, downloading the drivers, reinstalling 98se when the wrong but similar drivers corrupted the OS.
Finally, the next day I started fresh. But this time I loaded the lindows. I clicked next a few times and it rebooted. I expected even more complicated drives issues but to my surprise when it booted up. Everything was working fine. I was very impressed with the system and I installed OpenOffice without a single problem.
All is well now. I can do everything I need to do now and I see no plans for change in the future. I didn't even have to install x windows.
It just works and doesn't bother me.
I have been told that most other distros are like this now. It has come so far in such a short time, I cannot imagine what the next 24 months will bring.
If it's not inconvenient, it'd be a great thing for the Linux community if you compared your Windows experience with a few different Linux distros (RedHat, Mandrake, Debian, SuSE, etc).
I'd be more than happy to publish your reviews at http://steve-parker.org/articles/others/ if you don't have a website of your own.
This is a fantastic counter-FUD story which should be well publicised.
test desktop os's.
However, I did replace my Lindows with RH8.
Now I am really happy.
Same install, was very easy.
It's funny... Like I said I own several Linux servers and really love the OS.
This "desktop" version of redhat is truley what I needed. I have to power of the command line that I use on my servers and I have that handy clipboard and easy interface that 98SE provided me. I didn't even have to install a single GUI program - They were all there.
It also has the first "add/remove" programs I have ever seen that really works.
I leave this alone and I bet if this hardware keeps working I'll be using this system for sometime to come. I hate upgrading and find very little reasons to ever do so.
Re:The only reason I don't stick with Linux
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on December 08, 2002 04:54 AM
But my question is: You HAVE talked/e-mailed the companies and told them that you would be willing to buy these games if they re-did them for Linux? Right?
You see, one of the main drawbacks to getting games (and anything else for that matter) to Linux is the Catch-22 game being played. The game goes like this:
Companies:
We can't make X for Linux because there
isn't enough of a demand for X.
Customers:
We can't use Linux beacase Company A doesn't
make product X for Linux.
One of you has to give in and (the really important part) let the other guy know that you want whatever it is. Neither group can read the other's minds and neither group is letting the other know how they feel. Which is why there are so few things converted over to Linux. If everyone would write to a company (like Adobe for instance) and let them know that you'd pay for Adobe Photoshop (which - let me let you in on a little secret - Adobe already has a Unix version of Photoshop. We use it on SGI machines here at work!), then maybe they'd release a Linux version of it you could buy. But they probably will never do it unless everyone writes to them, agrees to purchase the product, and then follows through!
And that's the other problem. It is all good and well to say "Yeah, I'll buy it!" but if you don't buy it after they've spent the time and money on converting it, then what they see is "Oh yeah! We know those guys. They won't put their money where their mouths are. All they want is for us to make the software and then give it to them for free. Well, we have to eat, pay bills, pay taxes, and everything else just like everyone else. Let's go back to concentrating on Windows. At least then we get paid for our efforts."
And ya know - it might not make you very happy I'm saying this. But it's the truth. If you want companies to convert over to Linux you have to be willing to pay out your hard earned money for their software. And don't go saying "It's too expensive!" I didn't say you had to buy Adobe Photoshop per se. Go for Adobe Photoshop LE (at the $60.00 level) if you can't afford $600.00. Or look at some other company's software (like games) and write them. The thing is - you have to make the committment and stand by that comittment. Otherwise you have no one to blame but yourself for the state of things.
As our safety stuff here at work says: "When you look in the mirror you are looking at the person responsible for your own safety." The same is true for getting companies to write software for Linux.
While I (as a 29-yr-old father) have no need for games, it's the next generation who matter (whatever age you are, it's always the previous generation pulling the strings, until it's the next generation who are important - it's never *your* generation:)
To what extent does such "giving in" matter? If the poster bought a PC with Windows installed, is replacing it with Linux a statement to MS? No - because they don't know you did it.
Sending a company a letter (still more noticable than email) saying, "I'd have spend xx.xx on your software, if it ran on my OS, but it doesn't, so I didn't" is much more effective than saying, "I'd spend all my time in [ my chosen OS ], apart from this game which I spent xx.xx on, and *need* to play"
Re:The only reason I don't stick with Linux
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on December 08, 2002 08:06 AM
Playstation has Ghost Recon amongst it's titles (unsure about the other), & they have a Linux kit demonstrating that Sony support Open Source (something that we'll never willingly see on the X-Box).
I realise that it's probably an expensive way to play games, but at least you'll be free from "The Beast" & it's virus propagation software<nobr> <wbr></nobr>:-)
- Henrik
Sorry I didn't have anything significant to offer - it sounds like you had a huge political struggle to get something decent to put out to the public, but have establised a standard of excellence, which is the only way to succeed with such a project.
The http://www.theopencd.org/criteria.php is probably (IMHO) the most signifcant output of the project so far, other than the ISO itself.
The offer of working with the developer to provide a decent uninstaller is also a most noteworthy mark of excellence - not only the downfall of most "freeware" Windows packages, but also a marked shortcoming of many F/OSS applications.
Not having much time, or Windows experience, I fear I have little to offer this project but my support, but, having done the difficult part - not just cutting the wheat from the chaff, but deciding how to do so - this can only go from strength to strength.
Despite my reservations (as a security freak) about encouraging users to stay in Windows, I applaud this project for overcoming apparently insurmountable difficulties to become an established project, with a stated focus and ideal.
Steve.
You have put your finger on some of the key points of this project. Thanks!
- Henrik
We figured if people knew enough to want the sources that they would probably be curious enough to browse the rest of the CD.
In general, The MS Windows versions of Open Source apps don't have the emphasis and user base of the same apps under Linux. Provided Knoppix works well, it should be a much better demo than looking at the Windows ports.
1. First step: try OSS on the platform/OS you currently run.
2. Second step: get dissatisfied with current OS due to manditory updates, apps that no longer work with current OS (like MS Office not working on Win9x), loss of privacy when computer "phones home" reporting who knows what to mother ship.
3. Third step: look for new OS w/o limitation found in current one, like Linux, *BSD, etc.
See there, I knew you could get it. I like you just the way you are!
On the other hand. Some of us need free software for Microsoft operating systems because we are not in a position to switch in the near future. (Key software applications are not only unavailable for Linux/BSD but are so far behind in development that they are likely to never appear in a usable form.)
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
I can't imagine why a college teacher would raise these objections with what has been available over the past couple years and or with what is currently available.
If it's good, it's very, very good, if it's bad. .
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on December 09, 2002 02:14 PMWhether it's Linux, Win9X, W2K, WXP, OSX, *BSD, etc, if the drivers aren't on the OS CD or the CD supplied by the hardware manufacture, good luck on the Internet finding it. The prof probably just has some hardware that his distro has trouble with. One solution, try another disto. Another solution, try another OS. No reason to get religious about it. Find something that works, and have fun.
That's Knoppix. Knoppix is a distro, a debian based live CD with more than 2000 OSS/FS programs
http://www.knoppix.org/
For demonstration and more it is perfect.
TheOpenCD on the other hand, is designed to provide best-of-breed open source applications that people run on Windows to accomplish their daily work. Someone will, hopefully, use the programs distributed on this CD for months or years before changing over to Linux (if ever).
These are really two very different steps in the process of getting rid of proprietary software. Users who want the comfort of familiar Windows but want to try a little OSS can use TheOpenCD. Later, after they are familiar with the applications, if they want to see if Linux will work for them, they can try Knoppix without disturbing their Windows partition. Finally, if they are comfortable, they can switch to a real Linux distribution.
That said, the CDs of open source that windows users can use is still important. More than one way to skin em'.
for OEMs and small pc outfits (mom'n pops)to provide a little added functionality to the most basic win boxes at a very good price, though I'm surprised more vendors have not tried this already in lite of the cost of including, say lotus, works, corel, or office.
I love the Idea and though I don't think it will end up wining droves of converts it most definitely would help garner support.
Sounds Great But...
Posted by: Kevin Rice on December 07, 2002 09:48 PMI work for a very large bank. We have (unfortunately!) a corporate policy against using ANY open source program. UG! It's based on the premise that we'd have no one to sue if there was a trojan buried in a program we used, thus making our liability unlimited. Yuck.
But, we've pushed thru ActiveState Perl as a commercial product since it's supported and we can sue if it's not as advertised.
My point is that if there's a company that sells the very same CD that is available for free, only they add some kind of certification that the programs are not deliberately harmful, then we could use this stuff corporate-wide.
It's a sick, twisted world in corporate banking. But, I live there and have to abide the monsters therein. Outside views / maps out of this mess are a welcome sight. Bear in mind I'm a programmer, not a Executive Vice President...
-- Kevin
<A HREF="http://www.justanyone.com/">justanyone.com, my homepage</a justanyone.com>
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