Press Release
August 26, 1998
O'REILLY'S OPEN SOURCE DEVELOPER DAY PROMOTES ACCEPTANCE OF OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE Corporate Adopters Share Open Source Success Stories
SEBASTOPOL, CA--The mainstreaming of open source software accelerated
on Friday, August 21, when over 300 people attended O'Reilly &
Associates' Open Source Developer Day and Town Meeting in San Jose, CA.
Attendees heard Yahoo co-founder David Filo say that his company
couldn't have built the world's largest web site without FreeBSD,
Apache, and Perl--all open source software. IBM's James Barry told the
audience how IBM came to realize that Apache was the best choice for
the web server at the heart of the WebSphere Application Server. And
Jim Hamerly of Netscape explained how his company developed licenses
for its Communicator product that both promote open source development
and protect corporate interests.
Open Source Developer Day had a practical focus. Eric Raymond, author
of the influential paper "The Cathedral and the Bazaar," kicked off the
program with a keynote that chronicled the rapid growth of the open
source movement in the past year. His talk was followed by panel
presentations on managing distributed open source projects, open source
business models, and licensing and legal issues. Panelists were open
source pioneers and innovators, including Richard Stallman, founder of
the GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation; Larry Wall, creator
of Perl; Brian Behlendorf, a founder of the Apache group and Vice
President of Web Applications, C2Net Software; John Ousterhout, CEO,
Scriptics Corp. and creator of the Tcl scripting language; Michael
Tiemann, Co-founder, Cygnus Solutions; Bob Young, President, Red Hat
Software; Jeremy Allison, member of the Samba Team; and Pamela Samuelson,
Professor at the University of California at Berkeley and Co-director
of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology.
At the end of the day, another 100 people joined the crowd for the Open
Source Town Meeting, which was moderated by Tim O'Reilly, President and
CEO of O'Reilly & Associates. Attendees' questions flushed out the
philosophical differences between panelists and provoked a spirited
discussion on the pros and cons of commercializing open source
software. Scriptics Corp. CEO John Ousterhout elicited strong support
when he made a case for the value of bringing business knowledge-and
funding-to open source development efforts. At the other end of the
spectrum, Richard Stallman, founding father of the free software
movement, reiterated his long-held belief that all users should have
the freedom to copy and change any software they use.
Twenty-eight businesses and organizations that have a stake in the
continued development of open source software signed on as Partners in
Open Source Developer Day. Representatives staffed tables at the event,
providing information and demonstrations to attendees. Partners were:
- AbiSource
- Apache Group
- C2Net
- Corel Computer
- Cyclades Corporation
- Cygnus Solutions
- FreeBSD
- Free Software Foundation
- Linux International
- Linux Journal
- NetBSD Project
- Netscape
- Penguin Computing
- Perl Journal
- Red Hat Software
- The Samba Team
- Scriptics Corporation (Tcl)
- Sendmail, Inc.
- SGI
- Silicon Valley Linux User Group/LINC
- Songline Studios
- Summit Software
- SuSE
- USENIX
- VA Research
- Walnut Creek CD-ROM
- Whistle Communications
- Xemacs Project
About O'Reilly
O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.
Return to: O'Reilly Press Room
|
Recent Press Releases
Press Release Archive »
Resources
Press Contacts
Corporate
Sara Winge
800/998-9938 x7109
Media Relations - North America
Sara Peyton
800/998-9938 x7118
Media Relations - Germany
Corina Pahrmann
+49-221-973160-22
Media Relations - Japan
Kenji Watari
+81-3-3356-5227
Media Relations - United Kingdom
Josette Garcia
+44 (0)1252-721284
Media Relations - Conferences
Maureen Jennings
800/998-9938 x7083
|
