AS04: Open source takes off

Six make it - twice as many as last year

This year the Agenda Setters poll holds more representatives from the open source world than ever. Sylvia Carr asks: Has the upstart software model finally come of age?

Open source is no longer just about Linus Torvalds. He's always been the highest-ranked - and sometimes only - member of this community on the poll, which he's graced every year since its inception in 2000.

In 2000 and 2001, Torvalds was joined by Red Hat's Bob Young. Last year, two others came along: Erich Gamma for managing the open source Eclipse software development project and Munich mayor Christian Ude for threatening to switch the city from Windows to Linux (which later he did).

But the 2004 poll is unique in that it includes six individuals working outside the proprietary-software model, twice as many as the highest ever level.

The top-ranking goes, once again, to Torvalds, who remains the symbolic leader of open source to the Agenda Setters panel. The news this year is he tied with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates for 7th place - previously Gates had always topped Torvalds.

The result shows the continuing relevance and popularity of Torvalds' Linux operating system as well as the belief among our panel that open source may be a very real threat to Redmond indeed.

Next on the list comes Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL, the company in charge of the popular open source database of the same name. (Did you happen to notice the CEO of database king Oracle is absent this year?)

Here is where we see real progress for the alternative software model. Not since Red Hat's Bob Young in 2001 has a for-profit software company based on an open source product appeared on the poll. Mickos comes in quite high too - at number 12 - and was praised by the panel for smartly resolving disputes over database licensing with the GPL community.

Cooperation between the open source and commercial software worlds was also what earned one of the younger Agenda Setters, 34-year-old Red Hat director of engineering Mark Cox, a spot on the list at number 40.

AS panellist and Quocirca head of research Clive Longbottom said: "[Cox] is a big friend of likes of Oracle and IBM... while still keeping the Slashdot.org people happy."

As open source moves deeper into the corporate world, this sort of skill is going to become ever more essential.

The enforcement of software patents is a potential worry to the open source community over the next year - with rumours spreading that Microsoft might use the legal system to shut down Linux and others of its ilk.

Two Agenda Setters were picked for their role in fighting patents: Daniel Egger (number 37) and Richard Stallman (number 44).

The founder and chairman of Open Source Risk Management, Egger, a lawyer by training, is offering companies insurance against patent and copyright infringement claims.

Panellist and consultant Martin Brampton said: "It's not the solution to trying to get things more open, but it looks a practical move to make in the situation we've found ourselves."

Richard Stallman, a longtime free software advocate, showed up this year for "leading the charge on the patents issue", said panellist and Sheffield Hallam MP Richard Allan.

"I've watched him on the underground political level with the activists in the UK, and he comes over here and he packs the lecture halls," Allan added.

Stallman is seen as having the political force necessary to galvanise the open source troops in the face of adversity - something open source may need to flourish in coming years.

The final Agenda Setter from open source is not a developer or activist, he's a civil servant. But his recommendation to California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that the state consider using open source software could have significant ramifications.

His name is Bernard C Soriano (number 49) and he was the technology task force leader for the California Performance Review Commission, a panel charged with overhauling state government.

His team argued that open source products are more secure and flexible than proprietary options and could help make the state more efficient. Should California make the switch - either whole hog or piecemeal - to open source, it would be a tremendous publicity coup for Torvalds and his cohorts.