Free [open source] software has for some years now appealed to much more than the small technician community. Up to now, the world market has been driven by governments: every month, governments and public utilities announce their conversion to Open Source. Canada is behind and has barely started to make the choice between free software and proprietary software. However, its favourable conditions (advanced penetration of broadband networks, high degree of information technology and of communication knowledge in the public and private sectors) will quickly make up for the gap.

Before discussing free software opportunities for users, vendors and developers, let's try to find out a little more about its characteristics and applications.

Characteristics of free software

Free software is defined as such by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and the Debian project if it meets the following criteria: the freedom of all users to run the program, to study how it works, to redistribute copies, and to improve it. Free software is developed under an Open Source licence, the best-known of which is GPL (General Public License), which ensures that the source code is available to everyone.

The major characteristic of free software is that it is "free as in free speech not as free beer." While it is true that free software is available at no cost online, it is up to open source software (OSS) services firms whether to invoice or not.

Free software is found in numerous fields: infrastructure for local networks and Internet (Web, file, print, e-mail and database servers), collaborative-type Web applications, free software in environments with proprietary operating systems (Firefox browser, Open Office for office software) and finally operating systems and free software such as Linux.

The takeoff of free software has nothing left to prove; the numbers speak for themselves: 70% of Web servers around the world use Apache, annual growth of 35% for Linux servers, 25% of IBM's solutions are Linux based, and a ten-fold increase in Linux-specialized salespeople at IBM in four years.

Beneficiaries of free software

The growth of free software is beneficial for many players: users, hardware suppliers and OSS services firm employees.

Governments, education, health and as of now the private sector are increasingly turning to free software. The main reasons are cost (25%), flexibility and autonomy (23%), security (18%) and productivity improvements (17%). It is true that a licence cost reduced to zero allows clients to invest more in services, which ARE invoiced. Users also benefit from free software as regards solution maintenance and application continuity, since development is no longer dependent on one person in particular. Similarly, bugs and faults are immediately fixed, contrary to what can happen for proprietary licences.

Vendors also see a business opportunity with the boom of free software. OSS services firms, the main players, provide their clients with a variety of services to make free software as easy to use as proprietary software including assistance, consulting, training, integration and development. "Classical" firms also want to benefit from free projects by managing them. Companies that interact with free software development communities will be the most successful. This is why more than 35% of Canadian proprietary software publishers already offer free software, because this way, the client has the best product at the best price. Free software has led to the development of a new "co-optation" economy—cooperation associated with competition—meaning that companies pool the costs of research and development and compete in the services offered.

The last but not the smallest group to benefit from the free software market is employees. OSS services firms have kept the best of the start-ups, i.e. a pleasant work environment, career development potential and a sense of work well done. There is a return to responsibilization, participation and involvement at various steps such as innovation, development and deployment. Traditional firms follow a hierarchical model, whereby the search for status is omnipresent and the manager referees. OSS services firms work in a completely different way—skills are the engine, and discussion is the deciding factor. Linus Torvalds, the famous Linux developer, has shown that a project can be successful by letting all people express themselves regardless of nationality, education or age. Concurrent (i.e. hostile) initiatives are accepted without prematurely or definitively ruling, which reinforces the project.

The world of free software provides the various players with multiple possibilities. The field will create new types of jobs—technical and also in marketing—to guide the growth of this sector, to initiate top management to the free software business model, to complete documented case studies, and to provide a clear and viable transition plan to limit risks and reassure clients.