Bird-Doggin' the Internet

LINUX & THE PROMISE OF OPEN SYSTEMS

One of the hottest topics for designers and developers these days is the promise of open systems. For a generation, product advancements in control software, motion control cards and modules, VCRs, and mobile phones have all been hobbled by the promise of profit in proprietary systems. Those of you who travel overseas know all too well that even phone jacks, electrical outlets and voltages, and telephone protocols vary from country to country. While business and engineering goals are sometimes at odds, the promise of having a universe of integrated products which can communicate with each other is strong fuel for stoking the standards engines.

Another factor fueling the open systems movement is the fear that large monopolistic organizations will control user options and drain companies of their working capital through huge licensing and upgrade fees. Some of these issues are eloquently addressed in The Halloween Documents at http://www.opensource.org/halloween , and in FUD 101 which can be found at http://members.tri pod.com/~e_l_green/fud101.html. While it is of dubious value to bludgeon the Emperor of Redmond and his minions, it is worth while to note that free source code, responsive support, no license fees, and a flexible development approach are all sound business reasons for developers who use software to consider the open systems approach. Already there are stable applications which have been written such as TCP/IP, BIND, DNS, Perl, mozilla, and Sendmail which embrace the open systems approach. Apache project servers now account for over half of all commercial Internet Web servers, and they can be run on second line hardware.

Free alternative to Windows

The most visible product of the open systems movement is probably Linux, a free operating system that some devotees tout as a credible alternative to Windows. If you want to take a detailed look, peruse the tutorials and background studies at sites such as Linux.com at http://www.linux.com. Network Computing has also joined in with a "know-how" archive of tutorials at http://www.net workcomputing.com/unixworld/tutorial /004.html. This site has lots of links to current periodical and vendor resources as well. They also have other tutorials on installing network services, setting up a mail hub, and writing and installing a Linux device driver to control a hardware card. Some other resources mentioned in a recent issue of Online Learning News include http://www.netcraft.com/Survey/ (usage stats), http://www.linux.org (FAQs, articles, definitions), http://www. apache.org (Apache Software Foundation), http://webcompare.inter net.com (server resources), and http://serverwatch.internet.com (server and platform stats, downloads, scripts). Current news, links, participants, and opportunities are part and parcel of the ZDNet Linux Lounge at http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/specials/1998/10/linux_lounge/  (updated daily).

Moving to the factory floor

Just so you don't think that this is a Linux infomercial, be aware that the open systems concept is also making its way onto the factory floor and into many handheld and "appliance" devices. Sixty-three percent of developers in a recent Webreview.com survey thought that an open source approach was better for their development efforts and their bottom line than using off-the-shelf MS-based solutions. Some of the groups active in this area include OMAC (Open Modular Architecture Controls) at http://www.arcweb.com/omac, OCA (Open Control Architecture) at http://www.fsf.org (GNU Project, also known as the Free Software Foundation), IAON (Industrial Automation Open Networking) at http://www.iaopennetworking.com (Internet and Ethernet emphasis "from sensors to the boardroom"), and DNP (Distributed Network Protocol) at http://www.dnp.org.

Virtual tools and instruments

Another trend in software enhancements that holds potential for an open system approach is the emergence of virtual tools and instruments. Most of us already have tools in the lab which emulate thermocouples, oscilloscopes, tachometers, and data acquisition devices. A few years ago, these were all hardware devices that resided in discrete boxes. Now, many of them exist purely as software, which can be loaded onto any PC. Not only have the boxes disappeared, but in some cases, so have the boards and embedded processors which ran them. Still, there is the matter of who owns the protocols. Some creative software writers have found that even pure software plays are subject to royalty and license fees if proprietary protocols are implemented. Even in the "open" world there are also licensing considerations. Some models are more permissive than others. Where is all this going? Well, if we listen to the marketplace, we see PC and software-based systems making substantial inroads into traditionally closed proprietary device markets. In last year's Motion Control Forum, Bull's Eye Marketing disclosed that in a survey of 343 machine control vendors and users, more than three quarters thought that PCs and other consumer tools would make their way to the factory floor soon. Design engineers take notice!

For a wrap up and overview of open source in its broader contexts, take a look at sourceXchange, the marketplace for open source development at http://www.sourcexchange.com/. The Open Source Group is at http://www.opensource.org. It has lots of good links to FAQs, history, opinion, mailing lists, and like-minded organizations.