The Democratization of Open Source Software

Two decades ago, no one would have expected the rise of open-source software. It has become a norm for the tech industry and major companies feature some type open-source stack. Today, even proprietary giants like Microsoft, who have previously seen open-source as a threat to their survival, have embraced the movement.

What caused this paradigm shift? To understand the rise of the open source movement, we have to explore its complex history.

A Brief History: From Free Software to Open Source Software.

In the early days of the computer, the term open-source hadn’t existed as source code was available by default. Universities were some of its early adopters and contributors. In the spirit of academia, organizations grew to encourage sharing and cooperation. However, by the 1970s, free software declined due to costs as companies such as AT&T stopped distributing free versions of UNIX.

Nonetheless, the rise of the Internet made free software development feasible and accessible. In 1983, Richard Stallman published the GNU Software Foundation and formed the Free Software Foundation to promote the ideas of free software. By 1991, the release of the Linux kernel by Linus Torvalds helped complete the GNU Project’s goals to develop the first completely free and open operating system. Linux adoption grew exponentially and it became the subject of fascination in the open-source community. During the end of 1990s, the term “free-software” was dropped in favor of “open-source”. In 1997, Eric Raymond’s paper on The Cathedral and the Bazaar explored two styles of open-source development paths, the “Cathedral” and the “Bazaar” path. The paper gave legitimacy for open-source projects and used Linux as the example of “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow”, a term he called Linus’s Law. This paper would become the battle cry of the open-source movement.

Open source projects grew in the late 1990s and the early 2000s with the appearance of many projects such as MySQL, Apache HTTP Servers, and the PHP Lamp Stacks. It did come under attack in 2003 in SCO vs IBM, when Linux, the gem of the open source world was put into question for “using” proprietary software from the Unix codebase. The victory against SCO reaffirmed the legitimacy of Linux and the open-source model. However, the first open-source version controller would lead open-source to a new era.

A New Open Source Era: Git Empowers Open-Source.

The open source movement gained momentum with the appearance of Git.

Started by Linus in 2005 after BitKeeper revoked its free licenses to certain kernel developers, GIT ushered a new era of open source software. Git changed the game because it “democratized” open source projects. Developers were free to contribute to open source projects previously, but git now made it easier to view, access, and contribute to these projects.

With platforms like Github and Gitlabs adding additional user interfaces and functionality to Git, the open source community flourished. It was so easy to become a part of viral projects and contribute. Any developer can now become a part of the process. These platforms democratized open source projects. It was so effortless and easy for the developer community to voice the direction of the projects. Effectively, it gave all the necessary resources for open source projects to thrive. This rising and thriving open source community gave rise to a new business model, and one that would be quickly adopted by many corporations.

The New Open Source Business Model

The business incentives behind open-source are obvious. For example, Google decision to open-source Android helped with its adoption and growth to become the most prominent operating system on mobile platforms. Since Android is a fork of Linux, that now makes Linux the most prominent operating system on mobile platforms. Major tech companies such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Yahoo open-source their software, and in some cases, their hardware. After all, as Peter Guagenti depicts in “Three Waves of Open Source”, open-source development has commercially-driven incentives. The move reduces maintenance costs, drives growth, innovation, adoption, and awareness.

The Democratization of Open Source for the masses.

Open-source is no longer the topic among the stereotypical “hobbyists”, “sophisticated hackers”, or specialists of the past. More than ever before, students, the professional programmers of tomorrow, are exploring and exposing themselves to the chaotic open-source world. They understand git and cannot see a world without it. In classes like UC Berkeley’s CS 61C, they dabble in Apache Spark. In their own time, they spin up websites powered by Node.JS, Ruby on Rails, Django, MySQL, MariaDB, Postgres, MongoDB, and many other open-source stacks.

Participating in the Democratic Open-Source World

This new era of programmers are now active consumers of open-source technology. However, as Nadia Eghbal explains in her post, there is a developing sense of apathy in this open-source world. Developers need to actively participate in this democratic process. Whether it is a pull-request, a Stack Overflow response, responding to issues, or adding documentation to a project, developers need to become producers and contributors to help open-source prosper.

Regardless, I am hopeful about this prospect. With platforms like CodeTriage erupting over the net, there is an ever-growing interests in contributions. Most tech resumes today feature some type of github, bitbucket, or gitlab profile. After all, programmers have prowess when they talk about their projects, the open-source technologies they know and use, and their contributions to the community. It demonstrates passion and passion can only further a programmer’s career.

Open source technology, more than ever before, is truly democratized: it is driven by the people, for the people.

Parting Thoughts

The first communities that championed open-source technology have paved an open and clear path for this new generation of programmers. It is a road filled with many open-source choices, but there are still pebbles, rocks, and even boulders along that road. As we stumble along these obstructions, we have a responsibility to git them off the road.

Feel free to reach out to me if you want to talk about the recent developments of the open-source world or to share your opinions about the movement. This article does not try to cover every little detail about open source and I might have missed some information. Rather its goal is to help you appreciate the strides that open-source has made. I wrote this article to share my perspective, understanding, and appreciation of open source’s history and efforts. This article contains my opinions. It also contains my belief in the idea that open-source tech is one built by the people, for the people.