Open Source's Lessons for Historians

Of all the developments in the recent history of computing , none has attracted such widespread attention as the emergence of the open-source software movement. In part, this is due to the remarkable successes of such open-source projects as Linux, Sendmail, and Apache. Versions of the GNU/Linux operating system are used by 40 percent of large American corporations, 65 percent of the world's Web servers run Apache, and Sendmail manages 80 percent of the world's email. Even traditional commercial vendors such as IBM, Apple, and Novell have jumped on the open-source bandwagon; the Macintosh OS X operating system is based on a BSD derivative, and IBM recently announced a $1 billion commitment to open-source development. 1 Despite these apparent successes, however, the lessons of the open-source movement are not necessarily those that its proponents might hope or imagine. They suggest more about new methods and questions for historians to grapple with than obvious conclusions about a new " one best way " to manage software development. The various meanings of " openness " At its most basic, open source refers simply to software that is made publicly available as uncompiled source code. Such openness is unusual but hardly unprecedented. There can be compelling reasons for making source code available, even in competitive commercial environments in which intellectual property rights are generally fiercely protected. After all, secrets are just one way of protecting intellectual property; there are others, equally common and effective. In popular usage, however, the designation of open source is often used to refer to software that is not just open but also free. Free software, in this case, refers to software source code that is both publicly available and free (mostly) of license and copyright restrictions. In general , the only restrictions imposed are designed to assure that it continues to remain unrestricted. Finally, software that is free (of licensing restrictions) is often also made available free of cost. Most often when people talk about open-source software they are referring to projects that are simultaneously open, free, and free of charge. The appeal and power of open-source software goes beyond these notions of openness and freedom, however. The open-source philosophy is as much about process as it is product. Although advocates argue that open-source methods produce the best software in technical terms (in large part because it can harness the many eyes of a larger community to develop, …