What is the main difference between open source software and proprietary software? Of course there is the fact that one costs nothing and the other often costs a lot. But that is not the biggest difference. Rather it is the open, rambling and eclectic community of users and developers that make up the open source community that most vividly distinguishes it from the world of corporate software.
Only the open source world could develop its own praise singer.
Alastair Otter, journalist, ITWeb
It is the simple fact that anyone can contribute to the open source world that makes it so different to its proprietary counterpart. Most often this contribution is seen through the development of new applications and development tools, but there is an equally important role to be played by the millions who spread the word of open source through a network of Web sites, clothing, images and magazines.
And then there are the plain strange contributions to the world of open source software. I happened upon one of these yesterday while browsing around the OpenBSD site. OpenBSD, as its name suggests, is an open source variant on the famous BSD Unix operating systems, and as with Linux and other BSD flavours, it has its fanatical adherents. In fact, OpenBSD has some people so dedicated to the system, they have written a song dedicated to the operating system.
The most recent version of the song, version 3.2, is written to the tune of Goldfinger and called GoldFlipper. With words like:
Goldflipper
With golden skin
and flippers as sharp as a knife
He`s the machine
Designed to dismember your life
And the fish
Protecting us all from the cat
And the cat
Infecting the wo-orld for a laugh
GoldFlipper is probably not going to top the charts anytime soon but one has to admire the dedication. Previous versions of the song were called Systemagic and E-Railed (OpenBSD Mix). Copies and lyrics of the songs are available at http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html.
Few other operating systems can lay claim to regular song releases to celebrate their latest version, probably because few proprietary software developers would care to invest the time in employing a songwriter. By contrast, in the open source world someone who does want to write a song just can`t be stopped, particularly if they have the will and the time to finish the task.
That`s what makes open source software so fundamentally different to proprietary software and one of the main reasons I and many others find ourselves drawn into this sometimes chaotic but never dull world.
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