MESSAGE
| DATE | 2005-08-15 |
| FROM | From: "Inker, Evan"
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Kept Alive by Open Source
|
August 5, 2005
Kept Alive by Open Source
By Sean Michael Kerner
In 1999, Eric S. Raymond published The Cathedral & the Bazaar, a seminal
tome on the open source movement in which he writes: "Every good work of
software starts by scratching a developer's personal itch."
Beloved old technologies don't die. They go open source. For some reason the
open source model has enabled dead and dying technologies to stay alive long
after commercial interests left them to rot.
The names of once popular but now ancient technologies, such as Gopher,
DecNet, Amiga and even the Atari 2600 -- the granddaddy of all video game
systems -- still live in the hearts, minds and source code of open source
developers.
What magical power does open source possess that allows it to revive the
dying and resurrect the dead? In most instances it's the dedication of an
individual or a small band of loyalists that refuses to let the technology
go away. In some cases it's nostalgia. In others it's simply a matter of
meeting a need. And sometimes it's just about scratching an itch.
The Old on The New
The open source model extends a lifeline to old technology in a number of
ways. One method is by supporting the old technology on the new, such as
allowing an old protocol to run on a new operating system -- usually Linux.
Remember Gopher? Before Tim Berners-Lee's World Wide Web caught on and
before Marc Andreesen came along and developed the first Web browser, there
was Gopher, a distributed document search-and-retrieval network protocol.
Thanks to the success of the Web, Gopher has almost disappeared. Open
source, though, keeps it alive in the form of a number of different
projects, including the GoFish Gopher Server and the Aftershock Gopher
Server.
In 1975, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) released DECnet, a peer-to-peer
network architecture that, in its day, was an extremely popular technology.
Though still in use by a few companies, it has long since faded from the
computing landscape due in part to the ubiquity of TCP/IP.
Open source extends a lifeline to DECnet, thanks to the efforts of the
DECnet for Linux Project, which provides DECnet Phase IV connectivity for
Linux. DECnet even has some support from HP, albeit limited.
"As far as I know, HP still supports DECnet in OpenVMS because of the
prevalence of TCP/IP. I think it's not common, though," Patrick Caulfield,
project administrator of DECnet for Linux, told internetnews.com.
"The version of DECnet that we develop [Phase IV] is only supported by HP
under some very expensive 'prior-version' contract. The newer version [Phase
V] is still supported, but I don't know how popular it is. It's quite
complicated to set up and use in my honest opinion."
The Atari 2600 first saw light in 1977, eventually becoming one of the most
successful and endearing video game consoles of all time. And guess what?
It's still alive in the open source world, thanks to the efforts of
projects, such as Stella, which is an Atari 2600 emulator that brings the
ancient console back to life on Linux, Mac OS X and even Windows.
"In the case of Stella, there wasn't a huge increase in features until it
was open-sourced," Stephen Anthony, one of the project administrators for
the Stella Project, told internetnews.com. "Progress has been slow due to
real-life commitments of all involved, but if the project hadn't been
GPL'ed, all development would probably have ceased."
The New on The Old
Open source breathes life into old technology itself by allowing modern
operating systems, usually Linux, to run on last millennium's technology.
The Commodore 64 was one of the most popular PCs of its day, and thanks to
the LUnix (little Unix) Project, it can be used as a Linux machine today.
Amiga, one of Commodore 64's successors, has also spawned a cottage industry
of open source support. The Linux/APUS Kernel is a project that provided the
Linux kernel for PowerPC-equipped Amiga computers.
Allan Buxey, one of the project administrators for the Linux/APUS Project,
explained that having the ability to run an open source operating system on
the Amiga has enabled users to access software (such as Mozilla or
OpenOffice) that may otherwise have required an investment in a new
computer.
"Sure, AmigaOS has had powerful tools, but a lot of those haven't had
development for many many years and cannot handle the new world order,"
Buxey said.
The Amiga Research Operating System (AROS) is an effort aimed at developing
an improved and compatible AmigaOS 3.1 operating system. The Amiga actually
still has a commercial overseer, Amiga Inc., and there is apparently an
AmigaOS 4.0 in development.
AROS developer Aaron Digulla believes that open source does in fact extend a
lifeline to Amiga users.
"A representative from Amiga Inc. will probably decline such a statement,
but for many Amiga fans who have been worn out by repeated 'next week'
statements, AROS is one of the few things around the Amiga, which seem to be
alive."
Some old technologies simply are open sourced, and others are reverse
engineered.
In the case of DECnet for Linux, Caulfield explained that only the
specifications for (an early version of) DECnet Phase IV were ever open
sourced. According to Caulfield, Phase V is still a closely guarded secret.
The publicly disclosed DECnet Phase IV specifications are actually hosted on
the DECnet for Linux page with permission from HP, according to the project
site.
"I reverse-engineered some application protocols (phone and mail) though,"
Caufield explained. "I also reverse engineered LAT {Local Area Terminal},
which is not actually part of DECnet, but used in the same sort of
environments."
In the case of the AROS Amiga Project, no component of the original Amiga
was ever open sourced. "We also try to avoid decompiling the original code,
but work from the specs (AutoDocs, manuals, experience)," Digulla explained.
With the Stella Atari project, Anthony noted that the original documentation
to the TIA (the main graphics chip in the 2600) has been on the Internet for
quite some time.
"I don't know where it originally came from, but it's my understanding that
it was created by reverse-engineering the 2600 system," Anthony explained.
"This document is mostly complete, but there are new additions being made
all the time, as we find new things about the 2600 that were never
documented -- or documented incorrectly."
Open Sourcing Legacy Technology
Old, often unwanted technology seems to get open sourced all the time by
vendors of all stripes. Sometimes that technology gets picked up and
thrives, as is the case with the Blender3D Project, which picked up where a
failed commercial venture left off.
The widely successful Mozilla browser project was created as an open
sourcing of technology in 1998, which likely would have ended up in the
dustbin of tech history were it not for the open source model.
In other cases, the open sourced technology simply ends up in project limbo.
Burton Group analyst Gary Hein said there is a kind of cardinal rule in open
source that software companies shouldn't dump legacy projects on the open
source community.
"If the company doesn't want the project, why should the community spend
time and effort?" Hein asked. "Second, and I've seen this at Novell and Sun,
it may be very difficult to release old technology as an open source
project. There is a cost involved in getting the source ready for the open
source community, such as scrubbing comments, checking for licensed IP,
reviewing contracts with anyone that has licensed the source prior, etc.
"In many cases, ISVs will be reluctant to invest a few 100K into getting a
project ready to abandon"
The Last Best Hope
So why do it? Why does the open source community support old technology? Why
is open source such a fertile ground for resurrecting and supporting "old"
technologies?
According to the Stella Project's Anthony, one of the main reasons is the
amount of work involved. In Stella's case, writing a new 2600 game or
correctly emulating the system is a huge task. Emulators also share common
components, so quite a bit of an emulator can be written by borrowing from
another, which is less likely to happen in a non open-source environment.
"It takes a lot of passion to do so, especially when the hours are long and
the monetary reward almost non-existent," Anthony said. "In many cases, it
wouldn't be financially feasible to work on these things, so it's left to
enthusiasts to do so purely for personal satisfaction -- the very definition
of open source."
Amiga's Digulla noted that one of the reasons the open source model
resuscitates old technology is because the technology is no longer
interesting for the commercial market, as customers are now used to the
current stuff.
"This means that the only people who are interested in such technologies
must love them, which brings us right to the die-hard fans," Digulla said.
"People who love these things so much that they are willing to invest all
this time into it."
According to DECnet's Caulfield, it's all about enthusiasts and geeks, the
people who like the stuff and like coding for it.
"Also it's the open source itch being scratched," he said. "I have some
VAXes with no IP stack and I want to make them talk to my Linux boxes."
Open source is likely the last best hope for many older technologies and
likely the only way the itch can be scratched.
"Open source may be the last place deprecated commercial software and other
technologies will survive," Hein said. "Scratching the itch -- per Eric S.
Raymond's Cathedral & the Bazaar -- isn't always about innovation, but is in
some cases about pragmatic needs to support legacy systems."
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