An introduction to OSS and its impact on the language industry

Frank Bergmann

Open-source software (OSS) is already part of the mainstream information technology. Most medium-sized and large companies in the world are already using it in some way or another. Apart from being cheaper, OSS is considered to be more secure and more flexible than its commercial counterparts. Corporate customers love the independence from a particular software vendor and the possibility to customize the software to the company's needs, thus making it difficult for closed-software providers to compete with OSS.

However, OSS just recently became the candidate for "the next big thing" in the IT industry, the driver of a major wave of change that might radically alter the market forces, comparable only to the introduction of the PC or the internet. But this time, the revolution is not that much about technology, but about the business models of the IT companies. This article explores some of these potential changes and how they might affect localization customers and providers.

The rise of open-source software

Before starting to discuss the impact of OSS on the software localization process, we need to understand how OSS went from its roots to conquest of the corporate world. OSS was "born" in the 1960s and 1970s in the university and research environment. Researchers started to use computer programs for their activities and, working in a non-competitive environment, began to share the resulting computer programs among them just as they shared their research findings. These groups of collaborating software developers are today known as "open-source developer communities."

These early open-source developers wanted to make sure, however, that they were recognized as the authors of the code, in a manner similar to the scientific system of quoting research publications. So the GNU Public License (GPL) software license emerged, implementing the scientific citation rule in the domain of intellectual property rights. The GPL advocates that everybody can use, modify and redistribute "GPLed" software, provided that the initial authorship information is maintained. However, modifications and additions to GPLed software are GPLed again, creating what is known today as a "viral effect." The GPL "infects" other code when combined so that the body of OSS grows and grows.