Chances are that you, during your career, have used a lot of different software packages, running under several operating systems. I did, too. Much of my data needed to survive all infrastructure changes, over the years. I had more than my fair share of data loss, data corruption, vendors going out of business, insane upgrade schemes & costs and the like.

Saving my data from annihilation has always been, in the end, my job. Sometimes, import features assisted me with migrations. Over the years, things kept speeding up, and I learned the meaning of interoperability, that is: how to find the least lossy, daily transformations to carry data from one application to another and back. Meanwhile, even that isn't fast enough anymore.

Open-Source Software (OSS) alone is not sufficient to cure this disease, because many OSS applications suffer from platform lock-in: While you're on a Windows machine, you don't have that handy Linux application available. While you're working on a Mac, that nifty Windows application is unavailable. While you're working under Linux, WINE can't run the very Windows application that you'd need. While you're on the Web, file sizes are too big to work efficiently. And so on, ad nauseam.

That's why I've come to cherish excellent open source software that tears down those walls by simply running under various platforms. Running. Not just «being portable», but actually ported: applications that you can safely install on any of your computers and use it for years to come, whether you're online or not, whether you switch to a new operating system or not, whether you can afford buying a new machine every year or not.

I've decided to coin a new term for that kind of software and explain what it means in this posting. In part two of this mini-series, I'll list some great software packages that meet the criteria.

So, what is Ported Open Source Software (POSS)?

Goals of the POSS concept

The goal of the POSS concept is to provide the average, mainstream software user with sane advice on what Open Source Software (OSS) can be used on all mainstream platforms he or she uses during the day. Targeting the (perceived) mainstream means, in this case, a focus on software that gains the widest media coverage, too: software developed on the PC, for users working at the PC, running under wide-spread PC operating systems.

POSS Requirements, v0.3

Ported Open Source Software (POSS) satisfies the following four requirements:

1. OSI-approved License
   The license that covers the software is an open source license approved by the OSI.
   
2. Platform Affirmation
   For each release, executables are always made available at the same time for all supported platforms.
3. Data Conditioning
   All stored data processed by a given release of the software can be processed and stored again by any other platform-specific executable of the same release. If interfaces are needed (like, e.g., database drivers), they're available for all supported platforms, at no extra cost.
4. Mainstream Compliance
   For each release, executables are available for at least Linux, OS X (TM) and Microsoft Windows (TM).

Shortcomings of the POSS concept

The concept of POSS has some shortcomings that should be considered carefully before giving praise to it:

• Platforms for running POSS need not be OSS. That's because the POSS concept is a limited subset of the OSS concept, not a viral license.
• The concept of a mainstream is arguable. E.g., it could be said that embedded systems are somehow much more mainstream than PCs, at least by the sheer numbers of deployed units.
• Mandatory support for operating systems comprises only Linux, OS X (TM) and Microsoft Windows (TM). That leaves out e.g. BSD or Free DOS. An additional label like POSS+ could be created that covers software for 3+ operating systems, but currently I'm not pursuing that option.
• Downward compatibility with respect to the data persisted by a software is not required. My focus here is on working on different systems at the same time (synchronous aspects), not on maintaining historical data (diachronic aspects).

POSS artwork

Please find below some POSS logos and banners, for your convenience. If you want to support the concept, feel free to download the graphics. Use them wherever you feel its appropriate and please add a backlink to this page.

If you don't (yet) feel like supporting the concept, please let me know why, in the comments. I've deliberately labeled this thing "v0.3".