What follows are some of the notes I took from Bruce Peren’s “State of Open Source” press conference yesterday at LWE. Here are Bruce’s own notes. I make no guarantee, of course, that the notes are accurate – this is merely what I captured, so YMMV. Please note as well that I do not agree with all of what’s below, I’m merely relating it. In other words, don’t shoot the messenger, and if you heard it differently and/or have corrections let me know.
* On Open Source Economics:
One of the areas Bruce has been spending considerable time and attention on is open source economics. Questions such as whether open source is sustainable economically, and whether open source is a net positive or negative for local, regional and national economies? His analysis is posted here but the net is that his belief is that open source is both sustainable and a boon to economies overall.
* On IP and Patent Issues:
Bruce contends that this year’s LinuxWorld East is one of the first where the implications of IP ownership and protections has seen widespread discussion. In discussing the respective IBM and Sun limited patent grants, he characterized IBM’s contributions as wider than the original promise not to attack the kernel, but flawed and far from complete. Sun’s grant under the CDDL he charaterized as marginally acceptable, but inaccurately positioned as truly open. Perens also stressed that while it was his belief that the OpenSolaris staff had its heart in the right place, upper management was conflicted in its commitment to the community.
For Perens, however, by far the most troubling issue facing open source is the currently inherently broken patent system. It’s his belief that the open source community has no adequate response to the current issues around patents. Bruce also passed along an anecdote in which he was approached to serve as an expert witness in a trial described to him as “the definining patent infringement” case and when his credentials for such a role where evaluated, he was told he would be unsuitable due to a “conflict of interest.” The implication being that there is a major patent infringement case coming down the pike initiated by one who feels that Peren’s open source leanings would make him unsuitable. He speculated that Nathan Myhrvold’s firm might ultimately be a proxy for an attack on open source in general.
Bruce also called attention to the ongoing patent legislative efforts within the European Union, and he called out Denmark and Poland specifically for their efforts to fight this.
* On Mono:
Patent issues make Mono an unacceptable risk to Perens, and he will not work in it because he’s worried about his work potentially being encumbered in the future.
* On JBoss:
Perens believes that JBoss is moving away from the general open source world, into a tighter alignment with Sun
* On Linux and Laptops:
Linux on laptops is finally real; progress made around user interfaces and graphics support he expects to solidify within the distros over the next few months and be available within the year.
* On License Variety:
The current roster of 58 available OSI licenses is unacceptable from a combinatorial perspective; Bruce is working on efforts to simplify this and provide clear paths for working with separately licensed components.
* On OpenSolaris:
OpenSolaris currently provides more value than Linux, but that will evaporate within two years.
