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Software industry

2015-11-18T14:27:19Z

216.9.110.14: Data recovery -> data recovery

{{redirects here|Software company|companies that primarily produce software|Software house}}
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The '''software industry''' includes businesses for [[software development|development]], [[software maintenance|maintenance]] and [[software publisher|publication]] of [[software]] that are using different business models, mainly either "license/maintenance based" (on-premises) or "[[Cloud computing|Cloud]] based" (such as [[SaaS]], [[PaaS]], [[IaaS]], MaaS, AaaS, etc.). The industry also includes software [[Service (economics)|service]]s, such as [[training]], [[software documentation|documentation]], [[consultancy|consulting]] and [[data recovery]].

==History==
The word "software" was coined as a prank as early as 1953, but did not appear in print until the 1960s.<ref>{{cite web |author= Paul Niquette |title= Softword: Provenance for the Word 'Software' |year= 1995 |url= http://www.niquette.com/books/softword/tocsoft.html }} adapted from ''Sophisticated: The Magazine'' ISBN 1-58922-233-4</ref> Before this time, computers were programmed either by customers, or the few commercial computer vendors of the time, such as [[UNIVAC]] and [[IBM]]. The first company founded to provide software products and services was [[Computer Usage Company]] in 1955.<ref>{{cite journal |title= Recollections of the first software company |author= Elmer C. Kubie |journal= [[Annals of the History of Computing]] |volume= 16 |issue= 2 |publisher= [[IEEE Computer Society]] |date= Summer 1994 |pages= 65–71 |doi= 10.1109/85.279238 }}</ref>

The software industry expanded in the early 1960s, almost immediately after computers were first sold in mass-produced quantities. Universities, government, and business customers created a demand for software. Many of these programs were written in-house by full-time staff programmers. Some were distributed freely between users of a particular machine for no charge. Others were done on a commercial basis, and other firms such as [[Computer Sciences Corporation]] (founded in 1959) started to grow. Other influential or typical software companies begun in the early 1960s included [[Advanced Computer Techniques]], [[Automatic Data Processing]], [[Applied Data Research]], and Informatics General.<ref>{{cite book | title=From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry | first=Martin | last=Campbell-Kelly | authorlink=Martin Campbell-Kelly | publisher=MIT Press | location=Cambridge, Massachusetts | year=2003 | page=57}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title=The Computer Establishment | first=Katharine Davis | last=Fishman | publisher= McGraw-Hill Book Company | location=New York | year=1981 | type=paperback 1982 | page=268}}</ref> The computer/[[Computer hardware|hardware]] makers started bundling [[operating systems]], [[systems software]] and programming environments with their machines.

When [[Digital Equipment Corporation]] (DEC) brought a relatively low-priced [[microcomputer]] to market, it brought computing within the reach of many more companies and universities worldwide, and it spawned great innovation in terms of new, powerful programming languages and methodologies. New software was built for microcomputers, so other manufacturers including IBM, followed DEC's example quickly, resulting in the [[IBM AS/400]] amongst others.

The industry expanded greatly with the rise of the [[personal computer]] ("PC") in the mid-1970s, which brought desktop computing to the office worker for the first time. In the following years, it also created a growing market for games, applications, and utilities. [[DOS]], [[Microsoft]]'s first [[operating system]] product, was the dominant operating system at the time.

In the early years of the 21st century, another successful [[business model]] has arisen for hosted software, called [[software-as-a-service]], or SaaS; this was at least the third time{{Citation needed|date=July 2012}} this model had been attempted. From the point of view of producers of some [[proprietary software]], SaaS reduces the concerns about [[Software copyright|unauthorized copying]], since it can only be accessed through the Web, and by definition no [[client software]] is loaded onto the end user's PC.

==Size of the industry==
According to industry analyst [[Gartner]], the size of the worldwide software industry in 2013 was US$407.3 billion, an increase of 4.8% over 2012. As in past years, the largest four software vendors were [[Microsoft]], [[Oracle Corporation]], [[IBM]], and [[SAP SE|SAP]] respectively.
<ref>{{cite news|title=Gartner Says Worldwide Software Market Grew 4.8 Percent in 2013
|url=http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2696317}}</ref>

==Mergers and acquisitions==
The software industry has been subject to a high degree of consolidation over the past couple of decades. From 1988 to 2010, 41,136 {{Citation needed|date=January 2014}} [[mergers and acquisitions]] have been announced with a total known value of US$1,451 billion<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.imaa-institute.org/statistics-mergers-acquisitions.html#M&A_Ind_Software |title=Statistics on Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) - M&A Courses | Company Valuation Courses | Mergers & Acquisitions Courses |publisher=Imaa-institute.org |date= |accessdate=2013-02-04}}</ref> ($1.45 trillion). The highest number and value of deals was set in 2000 during the high times of the [[dot-com bubble]] with 6,757 transactions valued at $447 billion. In 2010, 1,628 deals were announced valued at $49 billion. Approaches to successfully acquire and integrate software companies are available <ref> {{cite book |last=Popp |first=Karl Michael |title=Mergers and Acquisitions in the Software Industry - foundations of due diligence |year=2013 |publisher=Books on demand |location=Norderstedt |isbn=978-3-7322-4381-5 |url=http://mergerduediligence.com/ }} </ref>

==Business models within the software industry==
Business models of software companies have been widely discussed.<ref name="Karl2010">{{cite book
| title = Profit from Software Ecosystems: Business Models, Ecosystems and Partnerships in the Software Industry
| year = 2010
| publisher = BOD
| location = Norderstedt, Germany
| isbn = 3-8391-6983-6
| author = Karl M. Popp and Ralf Meyer}}</ref><ref name="cusumano">Cusumano M. (2003) Finding Your balance in the Products and Service Debate, Communications of the ACM. Vol. 46:3</ref> Network effects in [[software ecosystem]]s, networks of companies, and their customers are an important element in the strategy of software companies.<ref>{{cite book
| title = Software Ecosystem: Understanding an Indispensable Technology and Industry
| year = 2003
| publisher = MIT Press
| location = Cambridge, MA, USA
| isbn = 0-262-13432-2
| author9 = David G. Messerschmitt and Clemens Szyperski}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Software engineering]]
* [[World's largest software companies]]
* [[COCOMO]] (Constructive Cost Model)
* [[Function point]]
* [[Software development effort estimation]]
* [[Comparison of development estimation software]]

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary}}

* {{cite web
|url = https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.en.html#SoftwareIndustry
|title = Software Industry
|work = Words to Avoid (or Use with Care) Because They Are Loaded or Confusing
|publisher = [[Free Software Foundation]]
|date = 2012-11-20
|accessdate = 2013-01-31
}}

{{Industries}}
{{Sub-disciplines of computing}}

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[[Category:Software industry|*]]
[[Category:Industries]]

Archive:Project fork

2005-12-27T20:20:43Z

216.9.200.67: /* Views on forking */

:''This article is about "forking" a [[software development]] project. For other uses, see [[fork (disambiguation)]].''

In [[software engineering]], a '''project fork''' or '''branch''' happens when a developer (or a group of them) takes code from a project and starts to develop independently of the rest. The term is also used more loosely to represent a similar branching of any work (for example, there are several forks of the English-language [[Wikipedia]]).

The term is particularly used in [[free software|free]] or [[open source]] software, when a [[schism]] occurs because of different goals or personality clashes. In a fork of this type, both parties inherit identical [[intellectual rights]] but typically only the larger group, or that containing the original [[software architecture|architect]], will retain the full original name and its associated [[social capital]]. Thus there is a reputation penalty associated with forking.

This can happen in [[closed source]] software as well, if the rights to the common code are shared; but this is rarer, as usually there are strict rules about ownership of the code. More commonly in closed source software, a developer forks its own code to develop two versions, such as a [[Window (computing)|windowed]] version and a [[command line interface|command line]] version.

Another sort of fork is a standard practice in many projects: to fork a ''stable'' or ''release'' version which will be modified only for bug fixes, while a ''development'' tree continues to get new features added. This is common practice in the [[Linux kernel]], for instance, but has been misrepresented occasionally in the trade press as the more problematic sort of fork described above. [http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20041121124609671]

In some cases, a fork can merge back into the original project or replace it. [[EGCS]] (Experimental/Enhanced GNU Compiler System) was a fork from [[GNU Compiler Collection|GCC]] which proved more vital than the original project and was eventually "blessed" as the official GCC project.

In the world of free and open source software, forks are most typically friendly. For instance, one could consider the distributed development style of Linux to be the cross pollination of many different developers forks of the same codebase. Part of what made [[BitKeeper]] so appealing to [[Linus Torvalds]] was its ability to make sense of all of these forks. In the case of parallel development, like the Linux project, it often boils down to a question of trademark. Linus owns the trademark to "Linux" and as a result his fork ''is'' Linux. Often two entities will collaborate on the same codebase, and market the effort under different trademarks. Since it is possible to have a fork without having any change in the codebase, forking can be a friendly collaborative process or a violent one with hurt feelings and, potentially, lawsuits.

==Views on forking==

Some see forks as a weakness in open source, but others believe that they demonstrate the adaptability of the model. The relationship between the different teams can be cordial or very bitter. For instance, because the author of the [[LMule]] file-sharing program for Linux was uninterested in porting it to other systems, the [[xMule]] team started a "friendly fork" to do so. Disagreements among the developers led to xMule itself being forked into [[aMule]], and the tension between the developers remains high.

On the matter of forking, the [[Jargon File]] says:
:"Forking is considered a [[Bad Thing]] — not merely because it implies a lot of wasted effort in the future, but because forks tend to be accompanied by a great deal of strife and acrimony between the successor groups over issues of legitimacy, succession, and design direction. There is serious social pressure against forking. As a result, major forks (such as the [[GNU Emacs|Gnu-Emacs]]/[[XEmacs]] split, the fissionings of the [[386BSD]] group into three daughter projects, and the short-lived GCC/EGCS split) are rare enough that they are remembered individually in hacker folklore."

Because of the ease of forking a project but the challenge of continuing to develop and support it, it's common for forks without extensive resources to become inactive — for instance, see [[GoneME]], a fork of [[GNOME]] by a former developer, which was shortly discontinued despite attracting some publicity. Some well-known forks have enjoyed great success, however, such as the [[X.Org Server|X.Org]] [[X Window System|X11]] server, a fork from [[XFree86]]. Most distributions have switched to X.Org, and overall [[X11]] development has sped up as well.

==Other examples==

*[[Enciclopedia Libre]] is a fork from the [http://es.wikipedia.org Spanish-language Wikipedia] to evade possible advertising.
*[[Pretty Good Privacy]] was forked outside of the United States to free it from the restrictive laws on the exportation of cryptographic software.
*The many varieties of [[proprietary]] [[Unix|UNIX]] — all derived from AT&T UNIX and all called "UNIX", but increasingly mutually incompatible. ''See'' [[UNIX wars]].
*The game [[NetHack]] has spawned a number of variants using the original code, notably [[SLASH'EM]]. (Nethack was influenced by [[Rogue (computer game)|Rogue]], but its code was written independently.)
*[[OpenSSH]] was a fork from [[SSH]], which happened because the license for SSH 2.x was [[non-free]] (even though the source was available), so an older version of SSH 1.x, the last to have been licensed as [[free software]], was forked. Within months, virtually all Linux distributions, BSD versions and even some proprietary Unixes had replaced SSH with OpenSSH.
* [[Apple Computer]]'s [[WebCore]] is a fork of [[KDE]]'s [[KHTML]] 3.1. This technology is used in two [[web browser]]s: [[Safari (web browser)|Safari]] and [[Konqueror]]. In this case, [[open source]] code became integral to a [[proprietary software|proprietary]] project.

==See also==
*[[revision control]]

==References==
*[http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Licensing_and_Law/forking.html Fear of forking] (Rick Moen)
*[http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html#forking Forking] ([[David A. Wheeler]])

[[Category:Software engineering]]

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