Open Source Open Source Software

The Open software Source definition is used by the Open Source Initiative to determine whether a software license complies with open source standards. ON

The definition consists of ten open source license requirements:

1. Free distribution. This means that the license should not impose restrictions on the sale and distribution of software.
2. Available sources. Even if the software does not come with the source text, these texts should be readily available.
3. The possibility of modification. The simple ability to read source texts does not allow you to experiment with them and release modifications
4. Even if the author's source text is intact, derived programs and their source texts should be freely distributed.
5. Lack of discrimination against people and groups of people. Some countries, such as the United States, have some restrictions on software exports.

# No discrimination on the purpose of application. A free license shall permit all activities, including genetic and nuclear research, commercial applications, etc.

1. License distribution. Open Software rights must apply to all users of the program without entering into additional agreements, such as non-disclosure agreements.
2. The license should not restrict other software products. Except for banal incompatibility, the user has the right to choose what to use.
3. License must be technologically neutral. That is, the license should not require anything from the interface or technologies used in the derivative program.
4. The license must not be bound to a specific product. The rights to the program code should not depend on whether the program is part of a product. A person distributing a program in isolation from a collection or transferring part of the code to another product has the same rights as the collection gave.

Open Source Repositories

• Open Source Repositories
• National Open Source Software Repository

Open Source Software in Russia

Main article: Open Source Software in Russia

2024

Abandoned and unsupported by creators of 70% of Open Source projects

In early December 2024, experts concluded that 70% of open source projects are abandoned and not supported by creators. This may be due to the fact that open source software development entails certain risks, because with the growing number of cyber attacks on increasingly important systems, the origin of the code has become a matter of national and economic security.

Open source software development is 34% provided by specialists from the United States, 13% from Russia and to a lesser extent from Canada, Great Britain and China. In the United States, 20% of open source comes from anonymous sources - this figure is twice as much as that of Russian colleagues and three times more than that of Chinese participants. Globally, 5-8% of all open source components come from an unknown source, meaning they can be tampered with or have questionable origins.

70% of Open Source projects abandoned

Developers include open source in projects without fully understanding its origin and functionality, which can lead to hidden backdoors, malware or critical vulnerabilities and create significant risks. Vital industries such as defense systems, water, electricity, banking and retail are already facing major challenges with software maintenance, and open source use could be another source of disruption.

It is known that 95% of vulnerabilities occur when using open source packages, and 51% of these vulnerabilities have not yet been fixed. In addition, 70% of open source components are no longer supported. However, unsupported open source is less vulnerable than well-supported open source, which is 1.8 times more dangerous, because the high speed of code changes increases the risk of errors. So while open source projects allow entrepreneurs, government agencies and companies around the world to adopt innovative technologies, there are serious risks associated with these projects that have to be considered.^[1]

Open Source project to manage cloud resources removed profiles of Russian providers and closed access from Russia

The open source project OpenTofu, which is an alternative to commercial Terraform products, at the end of August announced the removal of profiles for Russian cloud providers Cloud (formerly SberCloud), Yandex Cloud and Rustack Cloud Platform, and also blocked access to the registry.opentofu.org repository from Russian IP addresses. The Linux Foundation, under whose auspices the project is developing, announced that the changes are related to the implementation of measures to comply with US sanctions regarding the ban on the provision of services to Russian users. The decision was made unanimously by all 5 participants in the project's governing council in order to avoid legal prosecution of the hoster where the repository is located. More

A tool has been released to quickly make changes to open source software

In early May 2024, American specialists from North Carolina State University announced the release of a specialized tool called VFCFinder to quickly make changes to open source software. This tool simplifies the deployment of security updates needed to fix vulnerabilities. Read more here.

2023: How China is developing Open Source projects

The Ministry of Industry information technology China and (MIIT) has prepared a 5-year plan for the development of an open in software the country. This became known in early September 2023. More. here

2021: The history and main stages of the development of open source software from the origins until 2021

In 2021, the Russian authorities again drew attention to Open Source. An Open Source development strategy is being prepared. In a word, something moved, started and went. To understand where and why, you need to thoroughly understand the question - what is Open Source and what it is "eaten with." In this article , the author tried to give the most detailed, informative and reasonable answer to this complex and relevant question.

2016: Preliminary version of open source software is presented in the USA

In March 2016, the US presidential administration presented a preliminary version of the bill on the use open source software state of departments. Market participants supported the initiative.

According to a document released by the White House, American government agencies can share source code for certain projects with each other in order to increase their effectiveness and eliminate the need to develop the product again. More on this here.

2014: Open Source vs. Proprietary Software Model

Open source software has several advantages over software products delivered on a proprietary model (see Open Source Software Benefits).

In the 1990s, free software was considered exotic in the corporate environment, and Red Hat was the only notable competitor to proprietary giants led by Microsoft for a long time, but from the second half of the 2000s the situation began to change rapidly. Open source software has become mainstream for many large companies, and dozens of trusted open source software vendors have emerged that have achieved the right level of expertise and expertise to serve large and demanding corporate customers.

In 2014, there are many players who successfully compete with commercial software suppliers in a number of areas. In addition, Red Hat these are such open organizations as software ,,,,, etc Google Apache Software Novell SUSE. Acquia More and more OpenSource analogues of existing proprietary solutions are on the market. Open source communities are growing stronger and improving product quality and functionality.

As a rule, the development itself is offered free of charge, and it is commercialized through support and customization. This creates additional competition and, as a result, contributes to the development of open source software products.

In almost all industries and areas of activity, open source software can be used. Almost every proprietary software has a valid open source analogue:

• Cisco VPN – OpenVPN,
• Oracle Database – PostgreSQL,
• Microsoft Hyper-V – OpenVZ,
• MS Active Directory – Samba,
• Avaya IP Office Asterisk –and so on.)

Based on specific business objectives, you can compare the cost and timing of implementing a solution based on proprietary software and OpenSource.

2011

Indian state of Punjab abandons open source software in favor of Microsoft products

In October 2011^[2] announced that it was^[2]the Punjab state government had decided to purchase software from Microsoft, canceling the 2008 decision to install free software on 46,000 computers in 4,956 schools. 'We decided to reconsider the previous decision,' said Baldeo Purushartha, the state's school education minister.

The Punjab Government launched the Informatization Programme for Year 6-12 students in 2004-2005. The Punjab ICT Education Department is implementing a project that organizes computer classrooms in all primary schools with necessary equipment, software and broadband connectivity to. to the Internet At the state level, the Bharat Operating System Solutions decision was widely supported. (BOSS), tested and certified Linux Foundation to work in schools, due to its financial inclusion.

According to the President of Punjab, as of 2008, the minimum cost of upgrading software with a Microsoft license - for 16,578 computers at the rate of Rs 1,375 per computer - was Rs 23 million over five years. For this reason, in September 2008, the Punjab State Government decided to purchase and install BOSS in all state primary schools and stated that from 2011, all primary school students will be trained to use BOSS. The work was completed in April 2011, including training for 6,600 teachers.

But on August 8, 2011, after a comprehensive analysis of the results of the project, the head of the Punjab Department of School Education said that "the Department of School Education will return to the use of software from Microsoft... for the education of children in the primary grades of public schools'. The cost of renewing the licenses will be about 7 million rupees, 3.77 million of which has already been allocated by the government.

Moreover, about 90,000 computers will be installed in public schools connected to the EDUASAT network, through which students will be able to watch live broadcasts from various lectures. According to preliminary calculations, the initial price of Microsoft software and licenses will be Rs. 30 million. This amount does not include the price of equipment, etc.

Earlier, in February 2011, it was decided to use BOSS to work on the EDUASAT network. But now, according to Purushart: 'In order to use the installed computers as fully as possible, on which students will master Microsoft software, we want to use Microsoft also in EDUASAT'.

Note that Punjab was the first state to actively implement Linux in schools. Currently, BOSS is still used in the Indian states of Haryana, Gujarat, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh.

Germany in 4th place in the use of open source software in the public sector

According to a 2011 study by the Georgia Institute of Technology (USA), Germany ranks fourth in the world in terms of SPO penetration in the public sector. In 2001, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany (and with it all embassies and consulates) switched to Linux. Several times, the consulting company McKinsey confirmed: the foreign ministry significantly saves using Linux, OpenOffice and Thunderbird instead of a Microsoft set of Windows, Office and Outlook. It was even said that diplomats spend less on IT than employees of any other government agency.

But the trick is that in operation conditionally free software is sometimes more expensive than certainly paid. Dinosaurs like Microsoft can perform support better and cheaper than small Linux companies. And sometimes it is more profitable to buy a license. Therefore, for example, the same German foreign ministry is returning to Microsoft software this year. Officials assessed the money as permanent problems with technical support, as well as the difficulty in mastering the SPO (many employees complained about this) and spoke in the spirit that^[3] pays the stingy twice].

Products developed according to the open source software model

Linux Operating System

Linux, GNU/Linux is the common name for UNIX-like operating systems based on the kernel of the same name and libraries and system programs collected for it, developed as part of the GNU project. Linux can be freely installed and used on personal computers, servers and supercomputers along with free open source software packages.

Unlike most other operating systems, GNU/Linux does not have a single "official" configuration. Instead, GNU/Linux comes in a large number of so-called distributions, in which GNU programs are connected to the Linux kernel and other programs.

The most famous GNU/Linux distributions are Slackware, Debian GNU/Linux, Red Hat, Fedora, Mandriva, SuSE, Gentoo, Ubuntu. Of the distributions of Russian developers, the most famous [source is not specified for 33 days] ALT Linux and ASPLinux.

60% of servers in the world use the Linux operating system, which has high reliability and security in operation. Tens of thousands of computer viruses for Windows cannot spread and multiply on computers running the Linux operating system.

Open Office - office suite

Open Office can be freely installed and used not only on personal computers running Linux, but also on computers running Windows. At the same time, documents and files prepared in the MS Office office package can be read and processed in the Open Office package.

The composition of the Open Office Open Office Suite:

1. OpenOffice.org Writer - Writer text editor with rich capabilities for creating letters, books, reports, newsletters, brochures and other documents, compatible with MS Office.
2. OpenOffice.org Calc - Calc spreadsheets have advanced analysis, charting, and decision-making capabilities expected from high-quality spreadsheets, compatible with MS Office.
3. OpenOffice.org Impress - Impress Presentation Editor provides all general media presentation tools such as special effects, animation, and drawing tools. Compatible with the Microsoft PowerPoint file format, and can also save your work in numerous graphics formats, including Macromedia Flash (SWF).
4. OpenOffice.org Base - The Base database provides tools for working with databases within a simple interface. It can create and edit forms, reports, queries, tables, views, and relationships so that the management of a linked database is much the same as other popular database applications. Base enables HSQLDB as its default relational database engine. It can also use dBASE, Microsoft Access, MySQL, or Oracle, or any ODBC or JDBC compatible database.
5. Open Office Draw is a vector graphics editor called Draw that lets you do everything from simple diagrams or flowcharts to 3D artwork. Draw can import graphics from many common formats and save them in more than 20 formats, including PNG, HTML, PDF, and Flash.
6. Gimp is a Gimp bitmap graphic editor, a program for creating and processing bitmap graphics. Vector graphics are partially supported.

Writer Open Text Editor

OpenOffice.org Writer is a word processor and visual hypertext editor that is part of the OpenOffice.org and is free software (released under the LGPL license).

Writer is similar to Microsoft Word and the functionality of these editors is approximately equal. Provides the user with up-to-date tools for typing, editing, and formatting documents.

Along with the usual interface and functionality:

• creating and editing paragraphs of text and pages,
• adding sections and headers and footers
• inserting images and multimedia objects
• preview and print documents
• recording changes and reviewing texts,
• automatic registration of the table of contents, indexes and footnotes,
• adding macros and controls
• working with tables
• spell checking and more,

The concept of applying styles is a wonderful solution that makes it easier to create and format documents. Working with styles is supported in all components of the office suite, but it is in OpenOffice.org Writer that it is most fully implemented.

Five groups of styles: paragraphs, characters, pages, sidebooks and lists - provide the user with many opportunities for easy formatting of documents. The Styles and Formatting panel allows you to manage styles by modifying existing styles and creating new styles. And the more complex the document, the more often you have to change it, the more obvious the advantage of styling becomes.

Another tool, the Navigator, provides quick navigation through the document by selecting headers, footnotes, takeoffs, or other objects as reference points.

As with other components, there are many add-ons (extensions) for Writer that improve the basic functionality of the component or provide additional functions, such as grammar checking or publishing to MediaWiki.

Writer supports a large number of formats for importing and exporting files, including saving to PDF and importing docx. And sending a file by email is done at the click of a button.

Calc open spreadsheets

OpenOffice.org Calc is a spreadsheet application. With its help, you can analyze the input data, deal with calculations, predict, summarize data from different sheets and tables, build diagrams and graphs.

Calc is an up-to-date and business-critical spreadsheet OpenOffice.org component. A favorite tool for accountants and managers to create reporting.

Step-by-step input of formulas into spreadsheet cells using the wizard facilitates the formation of complex and nested formulas, demonstrates the descriptions of each parameter and the final result at any stage of input.

Conditional formatting and cell styles allow you to organize the finished data, and PivotTables and graphs show the results.

More than two dozen file import and export formats, including text import functions, allow you to operate with almost any data. You can also use a special tool to import data from other sources, such as databases, or you can create an updatable range so that the imported data is always up to date.

Links between different spreadsheets and joint data editing (starting with OpenOffice.org 3.0) are supported.

Various settings are available for printing finished sheets on the printer: scale, fields, headers and footers. And the built-in spelling check, as in a text editor, will improve the quality of the finished report.

Draw Open Vector Graphics Editor

OpenOffice.org Draw - a vector graphic editor, comparable in functionality to CorelDRAW, is included in the OpenOffice.org.

The Draw Vector Graphics Editor is a drawing tool that uses vector graphics. It contains a number of services that allow you to quickly create all kinds of drawings. Vector graphics allow you to save and display images as vectors (two dots and a line) rather than as a set of pixels (dots on the screen). Vector graphics make it easier to save and scale images.

the Draw graphics editor is perfectly integrated into the OpenOffice.org system, which makes it very easy to exchange drawings between any modules of the system. For example, if you create a drawing in Draw, you can easily use it in a Writer document by copying and pasting. You can also work with graphics directly in Writer and Impress modules using a subset of features and tools from Draw.

The package includes fully functional "connectors" between shapes that can use a variety of line styles and allow drawing drawings, such as block diagrams.

The need for a vector editor in the office suite is beyond doubt. The scope of such an editor is quite wide: from the simplest drawings and announcements to diagrams, diagrams and drawings.

In addition to your own objects, you can insert diagrams, formulas, and other elements created in other components into pictures OpenOffice.org. Draw also supports the export of raster images of most formats, both common and special.

Draw has all the necessary tools inherent in vector editors:

• Trunks, dimension lines, tables.
• Working with text and text effects;
• Change color fill, shadow, transparency;
• Place, snap, and manage objects using slides, layers, and guides;
• Various operations on objects are supported: addition subtraction, grouping and transformation of shapes;
• Drawing three-dimensional objects;
• Drawing using graphic primitives, Bezier curves;
• Effects: lighting, morphing and duplication;

In addition to your own objects, you can insert diagrams, formulas, and other elements created in other components into pictures OpenOffice.org. Draw also supports the export of raster images of most formats, both common and special.

Using the Gallery (object store) allows you to organize existing images, and supporting text styles saves time when making the same type of objects.

The finished drawing or drawing can be printed on a printer or exported to a bitmap image or, for example, to PDF.

The maximum drawing size in Draw is 300x300 cm.

As of version 3.0 OpenOffice.org, Draw supports not only exporting, but also importing PDFs (you need to install a special OpenOffice.org extension).

Base Open Relational Database

Base is an open relational database that allows you to create, edit, and process table data.

Users are provided with a fairly large set of data processing tools and tables: editors of forms, queries, reports, database tables. With their help, you can analyze the input data, deal with calculations, predict, summarize data from different sheets and tables, build diagrams and graphs.

The query editor allows you to create almost the entire range of SQL queries to databases for sampling, changing, adding data. Subqueries and queries with parameters are supported. The visual part of the editor will make it easier for a novice user to design queries.

The form editor allows you to use almost any standard database content management tool. It provides controls for text, numeric, binary fields, lists, drop-down lists, tables, buttons, calendar, and other items.

tool for working with external data sources plus the built-in HSQLDB DBMS. With Base, you can add, delete, edit database records: MySQL, HSQLDB (usually supplied with OpenOffice.org), PostgreSQL, DB2, Oracle.

It is also possible to work with DBF, MS Access tables, address books, text files, as well as spreadsheets created in the OpenOffice.org Calc or MS Excel.

External data sources are accessed using ODBC, JDBC, SDBC, and other technologies. The complete list of supported technologies and data sources depends on the operating system used.

More complex data management and processing is performed using macros and OOBasic programming language tools.

The Table Editor helps you create and manage tables in the built-in HSQLDB database, as well as with some possible restrictions on other databases.

Base has a built-in report wizard with basic functions for creating reports or tables or queries. But there is a better reporting tool - Sun Report Builder. This tool allows you to create reports of almost any complexity. It supports grouping, execution of built-in user functions, conditional formatting. SRB results in a Writer or Calc document that can be printed or edited later.

You can create data sources using Base. For example, by organizing a connection to an external database in Base and filtering the necessary data with a SQL query, you can work with this data in OOo Calc.

Open Source Benefits

White Paper: Open Source Benefits

Open Source Security

2024: Linux Foundation launches real-time Linux security threat notification service

On May 20, 2024, the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF), part of the Linux Foundation, introduced Siren, a service designed to improve the security of open source software. The service allows you to receive notifications about vulnerabilities in Linux and other products in real time. Read more here

2023: How Hackers Use Open Source Software to Hack Banks' IT Systems

On July 21, 2023, Checkmarx announced a new cybercriminal scheme targeting the banking sector. We are talking about attacks on the supply chain of open source software.

The analysis suggests that in February and April 2023, attackers downloaded packets with malicious scripts to npm, an open source software platform. In one of the attacks, hackers posted several infected packages with embedded scripts that identified the victim's operating system. Depending on whether it was Windows, Linux, or macOS, certain encrypted files in the package were decoded. These files were then used to download malicious code to the target computer.

The attackers who downloaded the packages created a fake page on LinkedIn (the social network was blocked on the territory of the Russian Federation for violating the rules for storing personal data of Russian users), on which they posed as employees of one of the banks. Initially, Checkmarx researchers thought that the bank could conduct penetration testing, but the financial institution reported that they were not aware of the downloaded packages. Hackers have also created custom control and control centers for each target.

In another incident, cybercriminals injected malicious code into a bank login page. Payload analysis showed that attackers identified a unique element identifier in the HTML code of the login page and developed special code to secretly intercept confidential data and then transmit it to a remote server. The malicious packages were removed after they were discovered by researchers, but Checkmarx believes attacks on the banking sector's software supply chain will continue to gain momentum.^[4]

2022

Open source software components may contain vulnerabilities. How do I improve code security?

The growing risks and widespread use of open source code software development in require composition analysis (software SCA) to ensure application security. Service leaders safety should broaden the scope of SCA tools to include detection, malicious code operational risks and risks, according to supply chains in. Gartner Gartner analysts have prepared the MarketGuide for Software Composition Analysis report, which helps you understand the functionality of the SCA class - Software Composition Analysis - ON and choose the right tool for yourself. The company's experts Web Control (WEB Control DC) specifically reviewed TAdviser this document. Read more here. [1]

The number of hacker attacks on Open Source projects soared by 700%

On September 27, 2022, a study was published, according to which over the past three years, the number of cyber attacks on open source projects/repositories (Open Source) increased by 700%.

Cybercriminals seek to exploit the shortcomings of Open Source ecosystems and continue to attack organizations through open source repositories. They inject malware-infected ON components that spread across the network and end up in applications that businesses and consumers rely on. The repository of Firewall Sonatype, which conducted the study, identified more than 55 thousand published packages in Open Source repositories as malicious in 2022 and almost 95 thousand packages over the past three years.

Almost every modern business relies on open source software. Clearly, the trend of using Open Source repositories as an entry point for malicious attacks is not slowing down, making timely detection of known and unknown security vulnerabilities more important than ever, said Brian Fox, CTO of Sonatype. Finding and eliminating malicious components before they appear on the system is a fundamental factor in risk prevention and should be part of every conversation about protecting software supply chains.

The scale of malware distribution from open repositories is so large that it is not possible to detect and prevent each attack in real time. And even if the malicious component is not used in the final product, it does not correct the situation, since the very fact of downloading such software to the developer's PC/server can already have consequences.^[5]

2020: Microsoft, Google and IBM set up an organization to protect open source software from viruses

In early August 2020, Microsoft, Google, Red Hat, IBM and several other technology companies launched  the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF), whose participants will deal with open source software security issues. This alliance was created under the wing of the Linux Foundation. Read more here.

Free Software

Main article: Free Software Foundation (FSF)

Literature and textbooks

1. V. Kostromin, "Linux for the user," ed. "BHV-Petersburg," 2002
2. Beluntsov V. Self-teacher of the Linux user. M., DESS-KOM, 2003.
3. "OpenOffice.org. Theory and practice. " Binom Publishing House, ALT Linux Library Series. Authors I. Khakhaev, V. Mashkov, and others. Moscow, 2008.

Computer science textbooks:

1. Kaymin V.A. Informatics. Textbook for students. M.INFRA-M, 1999-2009.
2. Kaymin V.A. Informatics. Textbook for schoolchildren. M., Prospect, 2009.
3. Kaymin V.A. Informatics. Exam manual. M., RIOR, 2008.
4. V.A. Kaymin, Kasaev B.S. Informatics: workshop on computers, M. INFRA-M, 2000-2003.
5. * V.A. Kaymin, S.V. Kaymin, etc. Basic software package for IBM PC. M., HIGHER ATTESTATION COMMISSION, 1984.

1. Kaymin V.A. Informatics. Textbook for students. M., Infra-M, M.,2006-2010.
2. Kaymin V.A. Informatics. Allowance for applicants. M., Prospect. 2007-2010.
3. Kaymin V.A. Informatics. Exam manual. M., RIOR, 206-2008.

Internet sources

• UNESCO: Linux and Open Source

• Project "Penguin" - introduction of Linux Technologies in Russian schools

• comments The government has allocated 130 million rubles for the development of Linux

• Supercomputing technologies

• GPL General Public License

• Linux and Open Source Technologies

• Migrating to Linux from Windows

• Open Source School Package

• CITKIT: Defining Open Source

• Informatics in Schools and Universities
• ARMADA: Open Source Software for Schools
• UNESCO: Free Software for Schools
• ARMADA: Methodical Support for Open Source Software
• State Bodies Transition Plan to Open Software
• Mandriva Open Source Project
• Kostromin V.V. Linux for users
• Software for Linux
• Electronic office in Linux
• Linux Technology and Open Source in Education

• Open Office Suite
• Open Office Documentation
• Open Office Open Guide
• Open Office Tutorial
• StarOffice Guide

• Writer Open Text Editor
• To users about the Writer text editor
• Open Editor for Writer Students
• StarOfice Writer text editor
• Calc open spreadsheets
• Calc Table Guide
• StarOffice Calc Spreadsheets
• Draw Open Graphics Editor
• Draw Guide
• StarOffice Draw Guide
• Impress Presentation Editor

• Open Base Databases
• StarOffice Base Database Guide

Notes