The Time Open Source Software Took Over the World, and Hardly Anyone Noticed

If someone walked up to you and asked if you'd used Open Source software today, you'd probably say "What the hell kind of question is that?" but if you looked into it, the answer would be yes, whether you know it or not. You depended on it today, as you've done pretty much every day of the last ~20 years.

But first, the pie.

Okay, let's say you make a KILLER apple pie. Everyone agrees it's the best they've ever had. Then a friend of yours takes your recipe and decides to add a caramel drizzle to the top, and it takes the pie to the next level. Let's say they taunt you about it a little too, because some friends are just like that.

Now - a question: Who does the Caramel Apple Pie recipe belong to?

(No one wants the technical and legal details so I'm simplifying here)

Recipes for food, and source code for software, are nearly the same thing. Those who coined the term "Open Source" answered the pie problem with an approach that could be described something like "Anyone anywhere can freely use and change my recipe, but their derived recipe must ALSO be free and changeable".

That last part is REALLY REALLY critical. It's what keeps someone from "stealing" your recipe and putting it on the market as Brenda's Homemade Special, refusing to let others copy it. Anyone using YOUR recipe as a base is legally required to follow the same "share and share alike" ethos for THEIR recipe.

This frightened some companies (we'll get to that) but others saw it as an opportunity.

Fast forward to 2023, and you're a Linux user. Yes, you. No, you don't get to pick on that guy you know who always wears a stained Tux t-shirt - because YOU are a Linux user.

It may not be on your desktop or laptop, but it's on your smart devices, wifi router, your Android phone... even your car (https://www.automotivelinux.org/). Many/most of the servers involved displaying this post run Linux.

As with any huge shift, there were people who didn't like it. Well, companies who didn't like it. Companies who relied on the idea that software must be secret, private, and above all else - revenue generating.

Two companies became most known for their "FUD" attacks against Open Source software in general, and Linux in particular. One is an easy guess.

Apologies for the video quality, you can't even see any traces of white powder around Ballmer's nose.

Microsoft's FUD campaign against Linux is legendary, but of course these days they've long since come to terms with it, and offer Linux servers and services on their cloud.

One company didn't do that. One company decided that the rise of Open Source had to be fought at all costs.

SCO saw the threat posed by a modern, free UNIX and went into all-out war with IBM who (along with Avery Brooks, apparently) had thrown in heavily with Linux (after IBM got their asses similarly handed to them a few decades earlier by Microsoft). They claimed Linux illegally stole from UNIX, and they owned all UNIX (again, I'm simplifying).

The SCO Saga: Featuring Groklaw is quite a story in itself, beyond the scope of this post. Allow me to sum up thusly:

Chromium (core of Google Chrome)
Firefox
Blender
VLC
WordPress
Bittorrent
7-Zip
LibreOffice
Notepad++
GIMP
Audacity

And thousands of others. You likely use at least two of these as ordinary applications.

I know the hater comments are coming no matter what, but I'll say it anyway - Open Source isn't perfect. There are problems. There have been multiple instances where big important projects happened to rely on an open source project from some dude in Kamchatka - and if that dude kicks the bucket, or poisons his code or something, the impact can ripple up to big places.

Open Source doesn't solve every problem in software, not by a long shot, but it goes a long way in solving some of the worst ones.

Even the US government is starting to get it, and has joined the Open Source Security Foundation and Linux Foundation in an attempt to improve the security and reliability of open source software (https://www.zdnet.com/article/white-house-joins-openssf-and-the-linux-foundation-in-securing-open-source-software/)

Spot tax.