Panel Targets Differences In Open Source Movement

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March 04, 1999 (2:54 PM EST)

Panel Targets Differences In Open Source Movement

By Malcolm Maclachlan,

A Wednesday-evening panel discussion between open source software leaders revealed a schism in what has been referred to as a religious movement.

The disagreement between the leaders centered on how free is free enough when it comes to open source code.

The panel read like a Who's Who of open source: Linux Creator Linus Torvalds, Perl scripting language creator Larry Wall, Python programming language creator Guido Van Rossum, and Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman. The panel was moderated by Eric Raymond, a well-known open source advocate.

While Wall and van Rossum tried to emphasize less controversial topics such as the importance of open source in education, talk quickly moved to freedom vs. profiting from software.

The disagreement showed the contrast between the dry pragmatism of Torvalds and the revolutionary fervor of Stallman.

Torvalds is probably the most recognizable figure in the open source movement. He was the man camera crews from mainstream media such as CNBC and CNN showed up to see at Linux's first big trade show.

Torvalds said he believes making money with software is acceptable, even if it sometimes means proprietary software. During the discussion, Torvalds echoed some ideas he brought up in his Tuesday keynote speech, calling on Linux users to embrace mainstream users and even mainstream software companies.

"There is a lot of power in the notion of combining open source with other forms of software development," he said. "The work I do that brings n the money and feeds my kids is going to be commercial software that no one is going to play around with."

Stallman's central belief, on the other hand, is all software should be free. Any software that costs and money and prevents the user from modifying it restricts freedom, he said. This idea, he said, has become corrupted as large software companies have rushed toward Linux as a way to make money.

"I don't think everything is coming up roses," Stallman said. "Popularity may or may not be a good thing, depending on which ideas are being popularized."

A free model does not prevent people from making money in the computer industry, Stallman said. For instance, people can sell technical support for software and hardware. The important distinction is support services don't make you promise not to tell your neighbors what you learned, he said.

He also added there are large computer companies who have really contributed to the open source cause, such as IBM. Yet there are other companies, Stallman said, who are merely marketing proprietary software that works on Linux. Both types of companies are getting equal amounts of hype from the press, he said.

He called on developers to ignore the temptation of big money corporations, saying the open source community has been able to accomplish plenty without them.

Torvalds countered big companies will have to get involved if average computers user are to enjoy the promise of open source. Most people are never going to bother to modify their software, he said; in fact, computers still scare many users.

"Any revolution that goes on for too long is by definition a failure," Torvalds said. "The idea is to become the establishment."