Opensource Web Hosting

By Web Hosting on Jul 31, 2007 in Opensource, Web Hosting

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OpenSource Web Hosting

Open Source is a set of principles and practices that promote access to the design and production of goods and knowledge. However, the term is commonly used in relation to or to describe computer software for which the source code is freely available. Source Codes are program instructions written as an ASCII text file; must be translated by a compiler or interpreter or assembler into the object code for a particular computer before execution. This allows users to create software content through incremental individual effort or through collaboration. Therefore, generically speaking open source refers to a program in which the source code is available to the general public for use and/or modification from its original design free of charge, i.e., open.

Open source code is typically created as a collaborative effort in which programmers improve upon or modify the code and share the changes within the community. The OSI (Open Source Initiative) issued a certification standard which specifically pints out that the source code of a computer program be made available to the general public completely free of cost. The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a non-profit corporation formed to educate about and advocate for the benefits of open source. The Open Source Initiative Approved License trademark and program creates a bond of trust around which developers, users, corporations and governments can organize open-source cooperation. The logic behind this move is primarily that a large group of programmers who are not interested or concerned with proprietary ownership or financial gain will produce a more useful and bug -free product for everyone to use. The key factor relies on the fact that users thoroughly review; research the program which further leads the users to detect and finally eliminate bugs in the program code and other related shortcomings; a process which commercially developed and packaged programs do not utilize. The role of the programmers constitutes reading, redistributing and modifying the source code which leads to constant and appropriate evolution of the product. The elimination of bugs and subsequent enhancement of the product takes place at a much faster rate as compared to the traditional development channels of commercial software as the information is shared throughout the open source community and does not necessarily originate and channel through a corporation’s research and development cogs. For a product to be considered “OSI Certified”, it needs to meet the following criteria:

  • The author or holder of the license of the source code cannot collect royalties on the distribution of the program.
  • The source code of the distributed program has to be made accessible to the users.
  • The author must allow modifications and derivations of the work under the program’s original name.
  • No person, group or field of endeavor can be denied access to the program.
  • The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program’s being part of a particular software distribution.
  • The licensed software cannot place restrictions on other software that is distributed with it.

While the process offers complete transparency, the main advantages lie in expedient evolution of the product, better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, zero costs and the elimination of the otherwise predatory vendors. Two of the most well-known open source projects are the Linux operating system and the Apache Web server. The complete source code is available for either these in order to compile and thereby modify it if needed for it to run on your systems successfully. N contrast, the Windows operating systems or the IIS web server do not allow access to the source codes or its modifications. These in effect can e termed as closed source systems in which the owner hold complete right and control over the product. In case of open source, medications and improvement can be made by developers. So, if for example; if a person has a new idea for new software that builds on Linux, you can get the core Linux source code, add the code for your new application, and redistribute both the Linux code and your addition. This option is however not available for closed systems like Windows. With GNU General Public License (GPL)—the most commonly used licensing agreement in the open source movement; users are allowed and encouraged to make copies of the software, modify it, or further distribute it, provided that if they add modifications, they make the source code for those available to everyone and always operate under the GPL themselves, so that other people or users can also make further additions or modifications for further enhancements and/or eliminations of bugs. People can even sell open source products, provided that a customer is willing to pay for them, as long as they comply with the requirements that the source code is freely available or available for a nominal charge to cover the duplication cost of the media (CDs or DVDs, for example). Linux is licensed under terms of the GPL, which helps explain why there are so many different versions of Linux (Red Hat, Debian, SUSE, and so on) while Windows of course is only available from Microsoft. Apache software, including the Apache Web server is licensed under the Apache License which is similar to the GPL to be compatible with GPL distribution, but with some minor licensing differences compared to GPL. The open source model comprises of tens or thousands of applications besides Apache and LINUX. These include games, office productivity tools, databases, software development tools among others. As far as non-software businesses are concerned, open source models have experienced a throttling or limited success. For example, authors or publishers have tried to ape open source publishing for books and articles adhering to the term and condition of GPL and/or similar open licenses but have failed to achieve the speculated and expected results. A few examples of the most popular open source softwares include openoffice.org, Mozilla Thunderbird, Mozilla Firefox, Blender, Scribus, Gimp, AbiWord and 7Zip among others.
The product license needs to be Technology-Neutral i.e. no provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style of interface. This provision is aimed specifically at licenses which require an explicit gesture of assent in order to establish a contract between licensor and licensee. Provisions mandating so-called “click-wrap” may conflict with important methods of software distribution such as FTP download, CD-ROM anthologies, and web mirroring; such provisions may also hinder code re-use.

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