Google and Open SourceGO OPEN oslo, norway

Chris DiBonaTuesday, April 08, 2008

2

Who am I?

Open Source Programs Manager, Google Inc.

• License Compliance

• Code Release

• The Summer of Code

• Protocol and API Licensing

Formerly:

• Slashdot

• Co-Editor Open Sources & Open Source 2.0

Floss Weekly Podcast

3

Agenda

Agendas destroy suspense.

4

5

6

7

8

9

Current(ish) Design

• In-house rack design

• PC-class motherboards

• Low-end storage and networking hardware

• Linux

• + in-house software

10

Pretty baby pictures, but what am I actually here to talk about?

11

Open Source Software Use at Google.

But first, two things….

12

Why do people release code at all?

A BCG/OSDN Study found that open source developers are motivated by:

• Intellectual Curiosity/Stimulation (44.9%)

• Skills Improvement (41.3%)

• Work needs (33.8 %)

• Open Source Idealism (33.1%)

• Non-Work Functionality (29.7%)

• Professional Status (17.5%)

• Reputation building within Open Source (11%)

• Dislike/distrust of proprietary software (11.1%)

http://osdn.com/bcg

13

Understanding Intent

OSS Developers understand OSS licenses.

They know they are “giving away” their software.

They know people will use it.

The vast majority expect nothing for the work.

If they did, they’d just do it as a commercial offering.

14

How does Google use Open Source?

As Infrastructure

• Linux kernel

• Apache Tomcat and many other Apache tools

• SSH, and other system management tools

• The Languages and compilers that we use.

• Engineers and others running Linux (Goobuntu)

As building blocks

• Our repositories have hundreds of libraries used in Google software

15

For our Platforms

Google Web Toolkit (Ajax toolkit for Java developers)

Android (Cell Phone operating system)

Google Gears (offline web)

Google Applications

16

But Why does Google use Open Source

Control and Ownership

• Maintain our independence from external software companies

Adaptability and Flexibility

• We can drill down to repair and enhance our services

• If we want to do something out of the ordinary, we can do so without showing our hand

• No one is incentivized to hurt us

Roots

• Appeals to the Google ethic

17

How does Google take part?

18

Google’s Open Source Programs

Patching and Code Release

Donations

Internal License Discipline

API/Protocol License Discipline

Industry Trade Group Participation

Open Source Infrastructure & Leadership

Summer of Code

OLPC Engineering

19

Code Release

Over a million lines of code released to date

Examples:

• Airbag Crash Reporting

• MySQL Replication Tools

• MacFuse (userspace filesystems under OS X)

• Google Web Toolkit

• Approaching 100 released packages: Search for label:Google on http://code.google.com/hosting/

• Updates for older releases like gflags, sparcehash, tcmalloc, etc..

20

Open Source Infrastructure

Hosting on Google Code which provides:

• Reliable, scalable, clean project Hosting

• Version Control

• Issue/Bug Tracking

• Wikis

Over 85k projects of projects, now the 2nd

Largest Repository Online

21

Patching

Hundreds of Googlers patching into projects such as…

The Linux Kernel Apache Tomcat and Axis The Gnu Compiler Collection

Subversion

Python

Perl MySQL SSH/OpenSSL EclipseEmacs

Vim

Gaim Adium

ICU Wine Derby Aspell DSpace Glib

Autoconf/automake

Make

GlibcBinutils

Java

Samba

Various Emulators

And Many More…

22

Open Source Developers…

Andrew Morton

• 2.6 Kernel Maintainer

Guido Van Rossum

• Python BDFL

Bram Molenaar

• Vim creator and maintainer

Jeremy Allison

• Samba Lead Developer

And more.......

23

The Summer Of Code, 2007

905 students

130 Organizations

Over 1500 Mentors

6200 applications

90 Countries

81% pass rate!

Over 2.3 millions lines of code

24

How it Works

1) Student applies to work on a project for, say, the ASF

2) ASF mentors review the application and accept the student

3) Google pays student $500 for being accepted

4) Student works with an ASF mentor to create project

5) Mid-Term, good students are paid $2000 by Google

6) Student continues work with mentor to create project

7) Final: If the student has completed the goals set forth in the application and student is paid $2000 by Google

8) Successful student gets t-shirt, certificate and valuable experience along with the money.

25

The Applicants

United States

Germany Canada United Kingdom

India Brazil France Poland Spain China

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

13

GSoc 2006 Geographic Distribution: Accepted Students (Top 10 Countries)

Country of Residence

# S

tud

en

ts

Students Per CountryMin: 1Max: 178Sum: 630Mean: 10.68Median: 3

24.26Stdev:

Student Educational Distribution

undergrad masters phd0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

GSoc 2006 Student Level Distribution

Degree Level

# S

tud

en

ts

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 20130

25

50

75

100

125

150

175

200

225

250

GSoc 2006 Expected Graduation Year

Year

# S

tud

en

ts

Average graduation year: 2007 Undergraduates most common participants

Not Just Computer Scientists

Mechanical Engineering

English Literature

Interior Design

Urban Planning

Astronomy

Cartography

Genetics

Developmental Psychology

28

Why do we do all this funding?

Keep students coding

• Flip Bits, not Burgers

Ensure a healthy open source ecosystem

• Good for the Internet

• Good for Google

A great way to meet students all over the world

A great way for open source organizations to grow and thrive.

A lot of Googlers come from the Open Source World

Giving Back

29

The Summer Of Code, 2008

1100 students

175 Organizations

Over 5000 applications (so far)

Target: 3 million lines of code

30

The End

Questions?

cdibona@google.com

http://code.google.com/opensource

31

Backup Slides Follow

32

Backup Slides Follow

33

Backup Slides Follow

34

The Applicants

United States

India Canada France Germany United Kingdom

Russian Federation

Poland Brazil Spain

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

1100

1200

1300

1400

1500

1600

186

Applications Per Country (Top 10 Countries)

# A

pp

lica

tion

s

Applicants Per CountryMin: 1Max: 1587Sum: 6338Mean: 70.42Median: 19.5

183.03Stdev: