Open Source Software at Fresco

We're committed to open source software! OSS probably isn't the first thing that you think of when you think of a bar, but perhaps it should be somewhere on the list. Here's a brief introduction to the field, what we do with it, and where you can go to find out more.

Table of Contents:

1. Our gift to the OSS Community - OSS VIPs
2. OSS - What is it and why?
3. What projects we use at Fresco
4. Where do I find out more?
5. Reflections on "Open Source Bar"

Our gift to the OSS Community - OSS VIPs

We're still drafting up the final wording for our give-back to the open source community, but here's the excerpt from our newsletter:

* Open Source Discount Membership rules: TBD.

At the moment we're only collecting information from potential applicants
that think they'll be up to the (unannounced) standards based on the above.
Suffice it to say, it'll be something like "verifiable nontrivial commits
to projects with any of the following licenses: GPLv1, GPLv2, LGPL, *BSD, ..."
with the rules subject to change as we work out what seems within the
right spirit.

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OSS - What is it and why?

The programs that you run on your computer (or whomever's you happen to be using) are a stream of 1's and 0's telling the machine what to do in an endless set of simple instructions. But programmers don't usually write in 1's and 0's - even simple calculations would take a while to type in and check (just ask anyone who ever sat there punching out cards and feeding them into one of the old minicomputers of a bygone era). Programmers tend to write in a variety of languages that help them get things done a bit quicker, a bit more error free (hopefully), and with a greater library of tools to help them do whatever it is they're trying to get done.

That's called "code", usually short for "source code".

A full definition of all this (including open source) is way beyond this simple web page (see the supporting documents for more complete / accurate definitions). This page is more for a first glance for the uninitiated (the rest of you probably already have your own idea of what open source is, and I'll bet you a beer they're not all compatible with each other ;) ).

Programmers generally just give away the 1's and 0's version of their programs (also called the "executable" or "binary"). But sometimes, they're after community, or just want to share a little more that just the executable; then they might give away the source instead. Other programmers (generally at their own will but I can't speak for everyone) sometimes send back little changes or add-ons (patches/diffs). Or occasionally they make their own copy and add the original author to the footnotes of the project and set off in a new direction (forking).

Some of these projects have gotten quite large (millions of lines of code). Some of them have gotten quite popular (find someone these days who's never heard of Firefox). And a few of them just wandered off to go to the great bitstream in the sky (figuratively and literally - Gentoo looks like it's going to go into space, at least according to this news announcement, for example).

Whatever it is that this software has done to the world (and around it), there certainly is a whole lot of it. And it's changed a whole lot of things. Just drop the words "Linux" or "fftw" into Google and see what I mean...

(Ironic Aside: the servers answering for this web page you are currently viewing are DEFINITELY using it themselves (yeah yeah, I'm ignoring potential closed source caching..))

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What projects we use at Fresco

• Gentoo Linux. Our highly optimized bar server and hosting solution are both emerged off the gentoo stack
• Firefox. For our browsing needs.
• GIMP. Graphics postproduction prep for the newsletter / website / ads.
• VLC. For the open mic live video streaming and reflecting
• PERL. The glue for everything
• Open Office. Someone has to talk excel these days..
• Apache. For our web serving needs
• PHP. When static HTML just isn't enough
• MySQL. 'Cuz everyone needs a serious relational database.
• vim. When notepad just doesn't cut it
• nano. When I'm too hung over to remember my vim escape sequences.
• Dada Mail. For our mailing list.
• Ubuntu. Because I don't want Microsoft thinking for me on my laptop and constantly coming up with what I don't want to do

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Where do I find out more?

• Open Source at the Wikipedia
• The Cathedral and the Bazaar, the essay from Eric S. Raymond
• Philosophy of the GNU Project

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Reflections on the phrase "Open Source Bar"

Of course, as Bruce Perens pointed out, the text of Open Source Licenses themselves aren't generally open source, or anyone could just drop whatever terms they like to have whatever agreement they want. I have a suspicion that a similar logic dilemma is at work here (thoughts? use the info *AT* peelfresco *DOT* com address for now until a message board gets sorted out).

Needless to say, it might take some further thinking to fully understand what "an open source bar" means.

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