Linus' Law to the Letter
Open source is more than a mantra; it’s also a best practice.
Tuesday, March 15th, 2005
If open source has a mantra, it must surely be, “Free as in speech, not free as in beer.” Software, we claim, should be unencumbered, allowing consumers of the software to run, copy, distribute, study, change, and improve the code as they see fit — in other words, free, as in liberty, to exploit the code.
But “free as in speech” isn’t just a simile for open source. It’s also one of its best practices. Most open source projects operate as a community, where freewheeling, democratic, and even contentious debate improves both the code and the community. All are welcome. “Citizenship” is attained via contribution. Leadership is awarded by merit.
Better yet, the evolution of the community (the people and the product) plays out in public, typically in a forum, mailing list, or newsgroup, and, of course, in each project’s source code tree. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, the government of an open source project is uniquely chronicled in real-time for all to see and critique.
As this issue of Linux Magazine goes to press, the kernel development community is focusing some of that invaluable discordant debate on how to manage kernel security risks. The quandary: announce exploits or keep them a secret? Broadcast vulnerabilities to the good and bad guys, or maintain the status quo until a fix is available?
