The Business and Economics of Linux and Open Source: a Book Review

Title: The
Business and Economics of Linux and Open
SourceAuthor: Martin
FinkPublisher:
Prentice Hall
PTRISBN: 0130476773The Business and Economics of Linux and Open
Source is written for executives whose companies produce
software and for IT managers who must choose and/or deploy this
software within their companies. It introduces both free and
open-source software (OSS), but predictably, the book focuses
mostly on the latter. In spite of this, actually, for these
reasons, I'd also recommend the book to hackers, for reasons that
will be clear later in this review.Part 1 covers the basics of what a kernel is and how Linux is
developed, provides definitions of free software and OSS, explains
how they deal with intellectual property and copyright, and
discusses which licenses are available.Part 2, titled "Operational Linux", discusses Linux and OSS
deployment in a company, making clear when and why this is a good
thing. The book presents all options, from installing an existing
distribution to creating a custom one. All phases of deployment are
covered, from migration to procurement, and all support options are
examined in detail, from commercial to internal.The last part of the book, "Open Source in Business",
describes how a company could make money producing OSS or what a
company should learn from OSS in order to make better
proprietary software. Chapter 9
answers the question, "Since the 'bazaar' model produces better
software, what kind of org chart and processes should a company
have to fully apply it internally?"The discussion of the real value of software--and how one can
make money from producing, packaging or selling support for
OSS--goes into great detail. Special attention is also paid to
legal and intellectual property issues, from closed hardware
drivers to training engineers to not blindly paste GPL code in a
closed-source product.The last chapter of the book is titled "Human Resources -
Getting Top Talent". At the same level with traditional selection
criteria, such as the "ability to focus on the project and its
ROI", are traits like "(OSS/Free SW) community visibility and
respect" and "actual contributions to other open projects". It was
about time, wasn't it?Overall ImpressionThe Business and Economics of Linux and Open
Source is readable for both hackers and managers.
Buzzwords and technical jargon are kept to the bare minimum of what
is required by the argument. Balance and concreteness abound; OSS
is not presented as the answer to every
problem. Instead, solid business reasons are provided for using or
not using it, and good advice is given for both long-term
strategies and daily operations. For example, we are told that
buyers should be trained to pay only what must be paid. (I
did hear about companies merrily paying
X for support, Y for five
Linux licenses").The whole book also provides insight about what corporations
can expect from both Linux and from individual hackers in the
medium and long term. In the first case, the message is "No more
UNIX wars, follow the LSB". In parallel, recruiters are told
to:

• go to [public] e-mail archives and check the
  interactions ... Does [the candidate] fit with your company's
  culture?
• discover what pseudonyms [he] uses on-line. Look at
  the archives at SlashDot ... Does [the candidate] trash other
  individuals?

Time to grow up, huh? Also, any manager reading "many, many
new graduates are fully trained in Linux" might conclude "Great,
lower salaries!". On the plus side, the author finally puts
great emphasis on finding the right, competent
engineers for the job and letting them be as free as
possible.A couple of important things are missing, however. First of
all, mention should have been made that open data formats are even
more important than open software for avoiding expensive,
unnecessary upgrades. In the second place, the author, while
demonstrating that "patent attacks on the OSS community" are a bad
idea, does say that objections to software patents "stem from the
fact that the community freely gives away its IP and expects the
same in return". In truth, the community is not that childish. I
would have really expected a pointer to any of these documents,
which explain how serious and damaging for a market economy the
whole issue is:lpf.ai.mit.edu/Patents/patents.htmllpf.ai.mit.edu/Patents/AgainstSP/asp-toc.htmllpf.ai.mit.edu/Links/prep.ai.mit.edu/issues.articleswpat.ffii.org/vreji/papri/eubsa-swpat0202/lpf.ai.mit.edu/Patents/danger-of-software-patents.txtEven considering the two issues I mention above, the book can
be quite useful for its target audience. Furthermore, it also can
make easier something that is badly needed these days: a greater
reciprocal understanding between hackers and executives.Marco Fioretti is a hardware
systems engineer interested in free software both as an EDA
platform and (as the current leader of
the RULE
project) as an efficient desktop. Marco lives with his
family in Rome, Italy.

email: linuxdesk@inwind.it