Open Source Software Distributions Research Articles

Comparative analysis of package managers Flatpak and Snap used for open-source software distribution

This article presents the result of a research of the Flatpak and Snap package managers used to distribute open-source software on Linux systems. Both package managers are characterised by their versatility and implementation of sandboxing. As part of the research, a test application was prepared, which was built in the Flatpak and Snap formats and published in the official software repositories, where for Flatpak it is Flathub and for Snap it is the Snap Store. The prepared application was first used to test and compare the implementation of sandboxing rules. This was followed by tests of RAM usage and start-up time by the application installed in both formats. The result of the research is an analysis of the measurement results and the drawing of conclusions.

Open Source Software Distribution Held Not Exempt Function

Bruce R. Hopkins' Nonprofit CounselVolume 32, Issue 4 p. 3-4 Articles Open Source Software Distribution Held Not Exempt Function First published: 18 March 2015 https://doi.org/10.1002/npc.30055Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Abstract The IRS has ruled that a nonprofit organization's development and distribution of open source software is not a charitable undertaking because anyone can use the software for any purpose, including commercial, personal, recreational, lobbying, and/or political campaign purposes, and that the organization's undertakings do not serve a charitable class, educate individuals, or amount to the performance of scientific research in the public interest (Priv. Ltr. Rul. 201505040). Volume32, Issue4April 2015Pages 3-4 RelatedInformation

Pioneering advantage in generic drug competition

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to take a close look at competition among the generic entrants during the first three years after patent expiration and examine whether there is a first mover advantage. Pharmaceutical markets experience the entry of numerous generic firms upon expiration of the brand firm’s patent.Design/methodology/approach– A random effect nested logit model of competition that allows for competition between the brand drug and generics, and among multiple generic drugs is specified. The model accommodates the effects of prices, detailing, sampling, journal advertising, time-in-market and molecule-specific characteristics. The model is estimated on cross-section time-series data for 49 molecules in which the brand drug lost patent exclusivity between 1992 and 2000.Findings– Strong evidence that the early generic entrant enjoys a substantial market share and profit advantage over the second and the third entrants, after controlling for differences in marketing activities was found. In addition, evidence suggesting that the advantage is due to the response of the retail pharmacy channel and due to differential effectiveness of advertising and pricing between earlier versus later entrants was found.Originality/value– This paper is the first to empirically model first mover advantage among undifferentiated products. The findings are useful for regulators in pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. They can also shed light on other industries where there is little or no quality differentiation, such as commodity trading, open-source software distribution and online banking.

Releasing open source at the Library of Congress

PurposeThe Library of Congress supports the use of open source software in its initiatives, from software development tools to technologies used in its web sites. From late 2008 through spring 2009, the Library of Congress for the first time released its own open source software. This article aims to provide an overview of the issues involved in developing, releasing, building a community around, and supporting open source software, based on the experiences of this project.Design/methodology/approachThree utilities and a Java Library – the Parallel Retriever, the Bag Validator, VerifyIt, and the BagIt Library – were released on SourceForge, the technology community's hub for open source software distribution and services, under the “Library of Congress Transfer Tools” project.FindingsThe tools support validation and transfer of data that conforms to the BagIt specification. The Library plans to release additional tools as part of a suite of solutions and software development resources as they are completed over time.Originality/valueThe article gives an overview of open source software use and development at the Library of Congress.

The Bonn Open Synthesis System 3

The Bonn Open Synthesis System (BOSS) is an open-source software distribution for unit selection speech synthesis that aims to be easily extensible to new target languages and different applications. To achieve this flexibility, many aspects of the software have been changed in recent years, including the addition of a refined interface to synthesis modules and a more strict separation of language-specific and language-independent code. This article wants to give an overview of the architecture from a technical perspective and explain how it can be adapted for a particular purpose and voice. This is preceded by a short introduction to the unit selection paradigm in general and a section on the specifics of the approach taken by BOSS. A particular focus will be placed on the extensions made for the integration of Polish during which some of the flexibilisation measures were conducted. Further information on the application to Polish but with an emphasis on the linguistic, phonetic and acoustic aspects as well as the speech corpus used can be found in the second part of this two-part article, “Polish unit selection speech synthesis with BOSS”, also published in this issue of the Journal.

Poisoning the software supply chain

To the indiscriminate and opportunistic attacker, breaking into a software package's development and distribution site and waiting until unsuspecting users install it is more efficient than locating and hacking into users' systems individually. Starting in 2002 and continuing in to 2003, we've seen new emphasis on this type of attack. All the recent activity has showcased the trend that attacks against open-source software distribution sites are increasing. The author looks at how softwares distribution-both open source and proprietary-can invite attacks.