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3 - The Open Source Platform

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2010

Fadi P. Deek  and
James A. M. McHugh
Fadi P. Deek
Affiliation:
New Jersey Institute of Technology
James A. M. McHugh
Affiliation:
New Jersey Institute of Technology
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Summary

We use the term open source platform to refer to the combination of open operating systems and desktops, support environments like GNU, and underlying frameworks like the X Window System, which together provide a matrix for user interaction with a computer system. The provision of such an open infrastructure for computing has been one of the hallmark objectives of the free software movement. The GNU project sponsored by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) had as its ultimate objective the creation of a self-contained free software platform that would allow computer scientists to accomplish all their software development in a free environment uninhibited by proprietary restrictions. This chapter describes these epic achievements in the history of computing, including the people involved and technical and legal issues that affected the development. We shall also examine the important free desktop application GIMP which is intended as a free replacement for Adobe Photoshop. We shall reserve the discussion of the GNU project itself to a later chapter.

The root system that serves as the reference model for open source operating systems is Unix whose creation and evolution we shall briefly describe. Over time, legal and proprietary issues associated with Unix opened the door to Linux as the signature open source operating system, though major free versions of Unix continued under the BSD (Berkeley Software Distributions) aegis.

Type
Chapter
Information
Open Source
Technology and Policy
 , pp. 80 - 118
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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