In the world of open source , Linux has become the 500-pound gorilla. So much so that the term "open source" often is used synonymously with "Linux," as if Linux were the only open-source operating system. Linux's dominance of the open-source world is more than just perception -- real numbers support this view. Tim Witham, director of the Open Source Development Lab, noted that of the two main open-source OSes, Linux and BSD, there are "a lot more people using Linux than BSD," and "if you look at revenue share, Linux far dominates." Given the ostensibly cooperative and communal nature of open source, it is a paradox that one OS would so dominate. How is it that the penguin has spread its wings farther than the alternatives?
Focus and Diffusion
"My personal feeling is, the BSD process was not as overall inclusive as Linux was," Witham told NewsFactor, adding that "a BSD developer could have the opposite perception." One of the great aspects of the BSD license, Witham said, is that a developer can create code and then implement that creation in commercial, proprietary software. However, they are also free to make their developments incompatible with other flavors of BSD. "In essence, there are 2000 different versions of BSD," Witham said. "Because you don't have to share your changes back, like you have to with the GPL [General Public License, which covers Linux], people diverge. I run into people all the time who say, 'we took the BSD off in 1995, we've got our own version, and it's not compatible with anything else. What do we do?'"
News source: NewsFactor
