Why the Internet of Things needs Open Source

jeremy · 04-20-2016, 02:40 PM

Quote:

It should come as no surprise to you that the Internet of Things already depends upon open source. Many IoT devices run one form of embedded Linux or another. In fact, without Linux many IoT devices simply wouldn't exist. What should come as a surprise to you is when companies that produce these IoT devices close up shop, they leave those devices out in the wild to die. Perfectly good hardware no longer capable of functioning...even when open source is at the heart of the device.

This needs to change.

What's the problem

In most instances, the companies that create the devices (those same companies that depend upon open source

as a foundation for their products) layer proprietary software and APIs on top of the open platforms running the system...all of this on closed hardware. Because of this, once the company dies, that hardware is left to wither and die. And before you think this never happens...it does. Companies are purchased all the time. Sometimes these purchases are innocent and sometimes not. Every so often, a company will be purchases just to put a competing product to bed. This winds up leaving consumers with a bricked device. You might think a product would continue to work, even without updates or company support. However, within in the realm of IoT, those products depend upon services offered by the company in order for the device to function. So long as those devices use closed APIs and hardware, they could very well remain dead.

However, if more open source were put in place, should a product be "bricked" by a company closing up shop, those products could be repurposed by the open source community and the device have a chance of continuing on.

This really isn't just about making sure a consumer-purchased device remains viable once a company shutters its doors and windows. This is about said company paying back the open source community for supplying the foundation that makes the device possible in the first place. Remember, without Linux, many of those IoT devices wouldn't exist in the first place. And so, it seems only fair that these companies pay it forward to the open source community. Should your company close up, hand the proprietary bits over to Git so open source developers can make something of your dead product.

More at TechReublic...

What do LQ members think?

--jeremy

Sparkfist · 04-21-2016, 09:39 PM

The author in the article makes many good points and I think with the way things are going it is trending to more open source technology. This could be as companies are seeing the benefits of having a community to work with in developing their product. It could also be that they want to use software that requires release of new code, like GPL, as apposed to BSD or others.

Having products able to come back to life via community support doesn't just mean new life for the product, it means new life for a company. Many people have created companies to support services or products that are created by another company. This would be a way to for a community effort to see some green that can help grow the OS community. But also draw attention of investors that can help spear head this cycle and push it forward. After all we're into technology not business.

The big push, from my own observations, is that the community would need to have the tools the companies want/need. The author was more polite than I will be here. Companies are inherently stingy, they don't want to spend the money unless they have to. So if they can cut corners by using a prebuilt solution that came from the OS community, be it API, hardware (e.g. arduino) or other software, these companies will use it.

Now my last point I'm not advocating that the community of programmers get together and build a new IoT suit with the end goal of it being picked up by a company. That honestly would be a waste of effort as the likelihood is very small that a plan like that would succeed. These things do tend to grow more organically and make a better product that way. But I'm digressing. I think the way things are going is what the author wants to see but it is taking a long time.

-Sparkfist