FOSS & BOSS GNU/Linux 12/19/final-presentation.pdf · not function if not for Domain Name Servers...
Transcript of FOSS & BOSS GNU/Linux 12/19/final-presentation.pdf · not function if not for Domain Name Servers...
Centre for Development of Advanced Computing 3
What is FOSS?
Free and Open Source Software
Free as in freedom , not price
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Two Philosophies ---- FSF and OSI
According to FSF what is FOSS
According to OSI what is FOSS
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FSF
Free software foundation
According to the FSF, free software is about protecting four user
freedoms
The freedom to run a program, for any purpose;
The freedom to study how a program works and adapt it
to person’s needs. Access to the source code is a
precondition for this;
The freedom to redistribute copies so that you can help
your neighbour; and
The freedom to improve a program and release your
improvements to the public, so that the whole community
benefits. Access to the source code is a precondition for
this.
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OSI
Open Source Initiative
The basic idea behind open source is very simple: When
programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a
piece of software, the software evolves. people improve it, people
adapt it, people fix bugs.
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How Software evolves?
Like a cathedral
Small groups of skilled artisans carefully planned out a design
in isolation and everything was built in a single effort. Once built small
modifications are made as per needed. The same rule follows for
software development.
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How FOSS evolves?
Its like a BAZAAR
Initially one or two trades come and concentrate primarily with
building a minimally functional structure so that they begin trading.
Later additions are added as circumstances dictate. Likewise , FOSS
development starts off highly unstructured. Developers release early
minimally functional code to the general public and then modify their
programs based on feedback.
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Advantage
Reduce duplication of effort
Building upon the work of others
Better quality control
Reduced maintenance costs
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History
Where FOSS started
U.S computer science laboratories (Stanford, Berkeley,
Carnegie Mellon, and MIT) in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
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Who started the open source war?
Richard Stallman is the father of GNU (recursive acronym
for GNU is Not Unix)
He was a student of MIT in 1980’s and developed many software
tools which were so called free and open source.
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Who started the open source war?
The kernel is the heart of the operating system. In 1991 Linus,
Torvalds, who at the time was a second year graduate student at
the University of Helsinki, wrote and distributed a Unix-like kernel. In
the manner of FOSS development, it was distributed widely,
improved upon and soon adapted to become the core of the
GNU/Linux operating system.
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Various aspects of FOSS
Licensing
Standards
Localization
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Licensing
What is copyright and copyleft?
What are patents?
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Copyright
Copyright is applied to various kinds of creative works, such as
literary works, music compositions, paintings and software. Unlike
patents, copyright applies to work upon its creation, regardless of its
novelty.
The ideas employed by the work cannot be copyrighted. Copyright
only prevents others from copying the copyright holder’s particular
way of expressing those ideas.
Under Copyright Law, the copyright holder is entitled to exclusive
rights of reproduction, modification, distribution , and public display
and performance of her copyrighted work.
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Copyleft
Open source follows the copyleft licensing
Copyright says “all rights reserved” the GNU GPL says “copyleft, all
rights reversed”.
Copyleft prevents free software from being turned into proprietary
software.
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Patents
Patents are designed to grant the inventor monopoly rights or
monopoly status over certain newly developed knowledge for a
period of time (usually 20 years) in exchange for its disclosure.
Typically, to gain such rights, the inventor is required to file a patent
application, which will be reviewed by a designated patent examiner.
Novelty of the invention is an essential criterion in granting a patent.
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What is GNU GPL?
GNU GPL stands for GNU General public License
Major Terms and Conditions of GNU GPL
Run the program
Make copies of the program
Redistribute the program
Prepare and distribute derivative works of the program,
provided the derivate works are also licensed to all third
parties under the GNU GPL
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LGPL
GNU Lesser General Public License
Some open source software work and co-exist with proprietary
software and encourage the development of proprietary applications
on the GNU system. For a free library whose features may be largely
replaced by other proprietary libraries, releasing it under the LGP.
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BSD Style Licenses
The Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), a version of Unix
development started the BSD style of licensing.
A BSD License allows people to freely distribute and modify the
original work, but it does not require that the modified works be as
free as the original work.
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GNU Free Documentation License( GNU
FDL)
Good documentation and manuals are extremely important for FOSS
programs. When they are not licensed as free/open, it is difficult for
people to make complete use of relevant FOSS programs.
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Other Licenses
Artistic License
Apache License
Mozilla Public License
PHP License
Open Software License
Zope Pubic License
Python Software Foundation License etc..
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Standard
A level of quality or attainment, or
An item or specification against which all others may be measured.
Approved by a recognized organization
Generally accepted and widely used throughout by the industry.
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LSB
Linux standard base developed by Free software foundation formerly
known as FSG
The continuous growth of the software field and software competency
leads to the development of ‘n’ number of applications being
developed.
This leads to fragmentation of the software. Hence standards are
important to stop this fragmentation. Standards set the rules as how
a software application should behave in various conditions.
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L10N and I18N
Localization and Internationalization
All the desktops show English messages and displays but internally
the machine reads it in 0’s and 1’s.So it never matters to the machine
what language the display is coming either it may be English, Hindi or
any other international language. Everything goes in as 0’s and 1’s.
Locale or every community in the world wants to have applications
developed in their Local languages. But the cost of localization is so
high that the countries cannot afford it.
So comes the FOSS.
Even Documentation and manuals are well prepared by the FOSS
community without any cost.
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Some successful FOSS projects
BIND (DNS Server)
Internet addresses such as yahoo.com or microsoft.com would
not function if not for Domain Name Servers (DNS). These
servers take these human-friendly names and convert them
into computer-friendly numeric addresses and vice-versa.
Without these servers, users would have to memorize
numbers such as 202.187.94.12
The Berkeley Internet name Domain (BIND) server runs 95 %
of all DNS servers. BIND is a FOSS program licensed under a
BSD-style license.
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Apache (Web Server)
Apache has been the number one web server since April 1996
and currently commands 62.53 % of the total web server
market. That is more than double the market share (27.17 %)
of its closest competitor Microsoft’s IIS server.
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Sendmail (Email Server)
An email server function is to deliver user email to its
destination. Complex functionality such as email forwarding
and redirection, junk email rejection and routing, makes email
servers rather complex systems. Study shows In 2001,
Sendmail had the largest market share, at 42 % of all email
servers.This was larger than the share of its next two
competitors combined, Microsoft Exchange and Unix qmail
(not FOSS as its licensing terms are too restrictive), with 18 %
and 17 % resp.
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BOSS GNU/Linux
What is BOSS?
BOSS is a GNU/Linux Operating System consisting entirely of
Free/Open Source Software, especially targeting the
Government domain with localisation support. It is the result of
efforts initiated by NRCFOSS for promoting the use of
Free/Open Source Software in the country
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About C-DAC
The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) is a
Scientific Society of the Ministry of Communications and Information
Technology, Government of India. It is involved in the design,
development and deployment of Electronics and advanced IT
products and solutions.
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About NRCFOSS
The National Resource Centre for Free/Open Source Software
(NRCFOSS) setup aims to contribute to the growth of FOSS in India
through Research and Development, Networking and
Entrepreneurship Development, as well as serve as the reference
point for all FOSS related activities in the country.
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What is Desktop Linux
The standalone machines with any Linux distribution that serves the
need of a normal user with not much services running on it are called
Desktop
Desktop Linux
BOSS GNU/Linux (sethu, tarang, anant….)
DEBIAN GNU/Linux (woody, potato, etch, sid, lenny, ……)
UBUNTU (edgy, gusty giboon…..)
Suse
Mandriva
Knoppix (Live CD)
Indlinux (Live CD)
Damn Small Linux (DSL)
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What the Desktop Comprises of?
For easy accessing of applications we need a front end or a GUI.
All Linux Operating Systems provide the Desktop manager for this purpose
The various Desktop Managers are as follows:
Gnome (ex: BOSS, Debian, Ubuntu etc..)
KDE (ex: Knoppix)
Xfce
ICEWm
Fluxbase
Enlightenment
Ratpoison
EvilWm
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BOSS
BOSS GNU/Linux comes with 3 CD’s
Install CD
Live CD
Utility CD
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Install CD
Can be installed to your Hard disk with a nice GUI installation
Needs a minimum of 512 MB RAM and Hard disk space of 5 GB
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Live CD
Boot through the CD and you will land up with BOSS desktop where
you can use the CD as an Operating System. It only uses the RAM
capacity
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Utility CD
An add on CD for the users who need extra applications with the
inbuilt software.
Applications such as Apache, Mysql, Postgre, Educational tools,
egroupware, webmin etc can be found with the CD.
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Reference Links
http://nrcfoss.org.in
http://bosslinux.in
http://packages.bosslinux.in
http://dowloads.bosslinux.in
http://wiki.bosslinux.in
http://freestandards.org.in
http://kernel.org
http://iosn.net
Various Linux User groups----I-LUG (ex: I-LUGC for Indian Linux user
group Chennai)