The open source acid test

Author

Lewis, Ted

Author_Institution

Technol. Assessment Group, Salinas, CA, USA

Volume

32

Issue

2

fYear

1999

fDate

2/1/1999 12:00:00 AM

Lastpage

127

Abstract

In the late 1970s, AT&T openly licensed the source code for its fledgling Unix operating system to universities and government research labs. This move got Bill Joy and Sun Microsystems started and resulted in several other famous open source product developments such as sendmail and BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain). Over the next two decades, Unix took root and became the foundation for several prominent computer companies such as Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and SCO (Santa Cruz Operation). You can safely argue that Unix is partially responsible for the Internet as well, and it has certainly been instrumental in stimulating CAD/CAM software, chip design automation, and other technologies fundamental to computing. By literally giving away the source code-with restrictions-AT&T seeded several industries. Open source is the latest in a long line of fads that promise a software development panacea. The author considers whether it can survive the acid test of mainstream viability in the context of Linux

Keywords

Unix; operating systems (computers); software engineering; AT&T; BIND; Berkeley Internet Name Domain; Hewlett-Packard; IBM; Internet; Linux; SCO; Santa Cruz Operation; Sun Microsystems; Unix; open source acid test; open source product developments; operating system; sendmail; software development; source code; Computer aided manufacturing; Design automation; Educational institutions; Government; Instruments; Internet; Operating systems; Product development; Sun; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Computer

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9162

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/2.745728

Filename

745728