Linux 2006

About Brighton

Tutorials

Speakers

Talks

Timetable

Introductory Day

Accommodation

Dinner

Registration Information

Event Information (PDF)

Booking Form (PDF)

Call For Papers

Other UKUUG events

Andrew Nicolson - Southampton Institute

An introduction to the politics of Linux

This presentation is a brief overview of political aspects of the development, promotion and adoption of Free and Open Source software including GNU/Linux. Here, politics basically means conflicts over power, whether political, economic, social or cultural.

The presentation considers several instances of politics, for example:

• Internal politics in the initiation and ongoing development of a FOSS project: forking, licence issues, project control and succession, use of non-FOSS utility software, etc.
• The Free/Open Source divide.
• Rivalry between alternative products, e.g. Linux and BSD.
• Relations between distributions of Linux.
• Commercial and market politics, including support for FOSS (e.g. INM) and open-sourcing decisions (e.g. Sun).
• The special cases of Microsoft and SCO, and attacks on FOSS.
• Organisational politics within adopters/non-adopters of FOSS-based systems.
• Public politics at local national, and international levels - debates over FOSS and open standards.
• Intellectual property issues and software licensing.

The presentation is not intended to be authoritative, but to give some recent historical background, stimulate debate, and encourage informed contributions from people who have been directly involved.