Archive for the ‘Free software’ Category
I work for The University of Manchester where, among other things, I assist in the support of various high performance and high throughput computing systems. Exchanges such as the following are, sadly, becoming all too commonplace
Researcher: “Hi, I have an embarrassingly parallel research problem that needs a lot of compute resource. Can you help?”
Support: “Almost certainly, you could have access to our 2500 core Condor pool or maybe our 2000 core HPC system or any number of smaller systems depending on the department you are in. Let’s meet to discuss your requirements in more detail”
Researcher: “Sounds great. I am using [insert expensive commercial package here], could we install that on your systems?”
Support: “Not unless you pay a HUGE amount of money because you’ll need dozens or maybe hundreds of licenses. The licenses will cost more than our machines! Could you use [insert open source equivalent here] instead?”
Researcher: “A member of your team suggested that about 2 years ago but [insert expensive commercial package here] is easier to use, looks pretty and a single license didn’t seem all that expensive. It’ll take me ages to convert to [insert open source equivalent here]. Instead of splitting the job up and spreading it around lots of machines, can’t I just run it on a faster machine?”
Support: “Sorry but parallelism is the only real game in town when it comes to making stuff faster these days. I’m afraid that you’ll have to convert to [insert open source equivalent here], open your chequebook or wait until 2076 for your results to complete on your workstation.”
The moral of the story is that if you want your compute to scale, you need to ensure that your licensing scales too.
Typical…I leave my iPad at home and this happens
I can’t WAIT to try this out. Blog post from Maplesoft about it at http://www.mapleprimes.com/maplesoftblog/127071-Maple-And-The-IPad?sp=127071
May I be the first to ask “When is an Android version coming out?”
Apple make a big deal out of the fact that their app stores for iPhone and iPad contain thousands upon thousands of apps (or applications for relative oldies such as myself). Some of them are free of change, many of them cost money but I got to wondering how many of them were open source.
When I say ‘open source’ here I mean ‘The source code is available’. If there is a recognised license attached to the source code (such as GPL or BSD) then all the better. So, what do we have?
Possibly the the best list of iOS open source software I have found is available at maniacdev.com which, at the time of writing, includes 42 different applications complete with iTunes links and the all important links to source code. Another useful resource is open.iphonedev.com which is a regularly updated directory of open source apps and libraries for iOS. There’s some great stuff available including Battle for Wesnorth, SCI-15C Scientific calculator and TuxRider (based on Tux Racer).
Free as in Speech but not always Free as in Beer
One of the things you’ll notice about iOS open source apps is that they often cost money and sometimes quite a lot which is in stark contrast to what you may be used to. For example, Battle for Wesnorth can be had for no money at all on platforms such as Linux and Windows but the iPad version costs $5.99 at the time of writing. The more serious, SCI-15C Scientific calculator costs $19.99 right now which is rather steep for any iPhone app let alone an open source one.
Charging money for open source software may upset some people but doing so is usually not against the terms and conditions of the underlying license. The Free Software Foundation (inventors of the GPL, one of the most popular forms of open source license) has the following to say on the matter (original source)
“Free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of “free” as in “free speech,” not as in “free beer.
Personally, I am happy to pay a few dollars for the iPad version of an open-source app if the developer has done a good job of the port. What does surprise me, however, is that it seems like no one has taken the source-code of these apps, recompiled them and then released free-of-charge versions on the app store. This wouldn’t be against the license conditions of licenses such as the GPL so why hasn’t it been done? I wouldn’t do it because I feel that it would be unfair to the developer of the iOS version but I would be surprised if everyone felt this way.
What’s next?
There are many open source applications that I’d love to see ported to iPad. Here’s my top three wants:
- FreeCiv (An Android port is on the way!)
- Gnuplot (This was done for Windows Mobile ages ago – see my review of it here)
- Octave (The iPad is more powerful than the laptop I did my PhD on. Plenty for basic Octave use)
Over to you….What do you think of the state of open source software on iPhone and iPad? Which applications would you most like to see ported? What are your favourite open source apps?
Update: 9th March 2011. Apparently, many of the open source applications currently available on the App store today violate the terms of licenses such as the GPL. The Inquirer has more details.
Andrey Ivashov’s free Mathcad alternative for Windows, Linux and Windows Mobile has recently been updated to version 0.87.3728 beta. This is a significant new release for SMath studio since this beta version adds support for units – possibly one of the most requested features on Andrey’s user forums.
I last looked at SMath Studio back in September 2009 and Andrey has made a lot of progress since then. As well as adding support for units and fixing some bugs he has added a whole host of user interface improvements including
- Dynamic assistance – SMath Studio can now be set to give you syntax hints and tips as you type your code.
- Support for plugins – Now we can all write something for SMath Studio
- A much smoother looking user interface – SMath Studio now looks much more professional than before
This fantastic free alternative to Mathcad is going from strength to strength and I am really enjoying watching its progress. Andrey has produced something that is genuinely useful, multiplatform, fun to use and, most importantly of all, he listens to his users. Well worth a download.