“For the commitment to open source I used to be called a communist”

Programs with the so-called open source, when the code is available to any user for changes and improvements that have a lot of adherents around the world. The developers of free (open source) software is a separate class in the IT-community. Christopher DIBON headed in the direction of Google on the development of such programs. He is author and editor of the world-famous IT-site Slashdot.org, a teacher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University master’s degree. Mr. Dibon told our correspondent on the state’s influence on the development of open source, the prospects for the spread of open source programs in Russia and the problems faced by developers of free software.

- In Russia, many advocates of free software, and developers is not enough. This is a typical situation?

- Suffice typical. There are countries that have formed the development community for open source, and the country in which it is only beginning to emerge. Russia is somewhere in between. And what is there depends on the government? Despite the enormous efforts it can achieve greater penetration of open source, or conversely, to limit it. Last quite difficult.

Here’s an example of how government can influence the open source - the purchase by the authorities of this or that software free software to provide equal opportunities for business decisions. Some governments go further and require giving preference to open source, and in this case, the question of the presence in a country development and open source programmers who understand this.

In any case, companies and nations is difficult to ignore open source. Here you are facing a dilemma: to spend a thousand or 2 thousand dollars to purchase software for each of your computer or install products are open source. When it comes to hundreds of computers - it is 100 thousand dollars, which is relatively normal.

And if you Google or Yahoo? Then it comes to thousands or tens of thousands of computers, and without open source you will not be competitive in the web ….

31 May 2009 | , , , code, improvement, open, program, source

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