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By Richard Morochove
First published July 1, 1999
SAN FRANCISCO - There appears to be a delicious irony in one of the leading lights of the open source software movement keynoting a conference for a commercial software developer that keeps its source code closed and away from prying eyes.
Yet there's clearly an affinity between Lotus Development and Linus Torvalds, the founding father of the Linux operating system.
Why did Torvalds start building the Linux operating system, as a university student in Finland? He found that closed systems were too hard for him to access. So he built a system that was open, for himself and others who felt likewise.
Some fifteen years ago, Lotus was the world's largest independent software developer, thanks to a revolutionary spreadsheet known as 1-2-3. Now a subsidiary of IBM Corp., Lotus concentrates on its Notes group collaboration software and Domino server software for the Web. Earlier this year, Lotus announced it would develop Linux versions of its key programs, such as Notes.
What happens when Linus meets Lotus? At Lotus DevCon99, held here last week, the veteran software developer played a few tunes from open source hymnbook. For example, Lotus is opening up its Domino server to accepting web sites created by other web development tools, such as Microsoft's recently-released FrontPage 2000 and Macromedia's Dreamweaver. Domino will also support Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM), which will allow closer integration with Microsoft Office desktop applications.
Torvalds looked and sounded like a software corporate CEO, even though he works for chip researcher Transmeta Corp. and not with any company connected with Linux.
And, like many software CEOs, Torvalds complained about Microsoft's competitive tactics. At first he was incensed about a technical report Microsoft sponsored. The report comparing Windows NT and the Linux operating system was quite critical of the upstart OS, pointing out numerous weaknesses and inefficiencies.
However, upon more reflection, Torvalds realized that Microsoft is his best beta tester. No one else can afford to test Linux under so many different circumstances and devote so many computers to examining its flaws. It was simply rude of Microsoft to send the resulting report to PC Week and the Wall Street Journal instead of filing a bug report with the Linux organization.
Yet Microsoft's publicity machine ensured that for each problem the company reported, Torvalds had 100 programmers come forward, volunteering to fix it.
Torvalds preaches a co-operative approach to program development. You don't need contracts to force developers to do something. They should do the work because they want to do it. He sees it as a symbiotic relationship between co-developers.
Many developers who wish to take advantage of the open source process don't understand the process of team motivation, according to Torvalds. They release the first, really bad, version of their software to the public and think that three months later it comes back really good. Yet open source development is not a free ride. It's just a different ride.
Torvalds believes the key to motivating an open source development team is the thrill of finding a flaw and then building software around it. He compares it to the way an oyster creates a pearl around an irritating grain of sand.
However, even Torvalds believes that co-operative development of open systems has its limitations. He says it works best in infrastructure development (such as operating systems) and in new markets that don't yet have established competitors. The rather magical process of assembling an eager team of volunteers can be too difficult to pull off in other areas.
He points to the Mozilla team at Netscape as an example of a noble failure. The dream of Mozilla was to develop a better Netscape browser by using the talents of volunteers to enhance its capabilities. However, the donated improvements were concentrated in a few areas, such as beefed-up security. Most of the other enhancements came from people working at Netscape.
While some criticize the growing commercialism in the Linux market, Torvalds believes it's inevitable as a technological development becomes popular. Businesses want to support the development, which means they need to find a way to make money from it.
Torvalds points out that almost all of the important standards in computing are commercially supported. From the IBM personal computer to the Palm Pilot, the core technologies are commercial, even though there are vibrant non-commercial communities supporting them, developing shareware for both the PC and the Palm OS.
"I hate the marketing and paperwork," Torvalds said. "If someone else does it for me, why should I complain?" CW
Richard Morochove, FCA, is a Toronto-based computer consultant.
Copyright ©1999 by Morochove & Associates Inc. All rights reserved. This work may not be copied or distributed by any means without our prior written permission.
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