El concepto de software libre

El software libre es cada vez más habitual en casi cualquier entorno informático. Sin embargo, es también un gran desconocido. En este artículo se exponen las condiciones que tiene que cumplir un programa para ser considerado como software libre, compiladas en varias definiciones. A partir de ellas se repasa brevemente su historia y se exploran algunas de sus características y consecuencias. También se comentan algunos aspectos relacionados con las licencias de software libre que son tan fundamentales para su existencia.El programari lliure és cada vegada més habitual en qualsevol entorn informàtic. Tanmateix, és també un gran desconegut. En aquest article s'exposen les condicions que ha de complir un programa per a ser considerat com a programari lliure, compilades en diverses definicions. A partir d'elles es repassa breument la seva història i s'exploren algunes de les seves característiques i conseqüències. També es comenten alguns aspectes relacionats amb les llicències de programari lliure que són tan bàsiques per a la seva existència.Free, open source software is increasingly more usual in almost any computing environment. However, it is also a great unknown: not many people knows what it truly is. This paper presents the conditions that some piece of software has to comply with to be considered as free or open source software, which are compiled in several definitions. Starting from them, its history is briefly exposed, and some of its characteristics and consequences are explored. In addition, some aspects related to free software licensing are commented, since they are so fundamental for its very existence

The Software Heritage License Dataset (2022 Edition)

Context: When software is released publicly, it is common to include with it either the full text of the license or licenses under which it is published, or a detailed reference to them. Therefore public licenses, including FOSS (free, open source software) licenses, are usually publicly available in source code repositories.Objective: To compile a dataset containing as many documents as possible that contain the text of software licenses, or references to the license terms. Once compiled, characterize the dataset so that it can be used for further research, or practical purposes related to license analysis.Method: Retrieve from Software Heritage-the largest publicly available archive of FOSS source code-all versions of all files whose names are commonly used to convey licensing terms. All retrieved documents will be characterized in various ways, using automated and manual analyses.Results: The dataset consists of 6.9 million unique license files. Additional metadata about shipped license files is also provided, making the dataset ready to use in various contexts, including: file length measures, MIME type, SPDX license (detected using ScanCode), and oldest appearance. The results of a manual analysis of 8102 documents is also included, providing a ground truth for further analysis. The dataset is released as open data as an archive file containing all deduplicated license files, plus several portable CSV files with metadata, referencing files via cryptographic checksums.Conclusions: Thanks to the extensive coverage of Software Heritage, the dataset presented in this paper covers a very large fraction of all software licenses for public code. We have assembled a large body of software licenses, characterized it quantitatively and qualitatively, and validated that it is mostly composed of licensing information and includes almost all known license texts. The dataset can be used to conduct empirical studies on open source licensing, training of automated license classifiers, natural language processing (NLP) analyses of legal texts, as well as historical and phylogenetic studies on FOSS licensing. It can also be used in practice to improve tools detecting licenses in source code

SENTIMENT ANALYSIS OF FREE/OPEN SOURCE DEVELOPERS: PRELIMINARY FINDINGS FROM A CASE STUDY

Software development is a human intensive activity. And as such, how developers face their tasks is of major importance. In an environment such as the one that is common in FOSS (free/open source software) projects where professionals (i.e., paid developers) share the development effort with volunteers, the morale of the development and user community is of major importance. In this paper, we present a preliminary analysis using sentiment analysis techniques to a FOSS project. We therefore mine the mailing list of a project and apply these techniques to the most relevant participants. Although the application is at this time limited, we hope that this experience can be of benefit in the future to determine situations that may affect the developers or the project, such as low productivity, developer abandonment, project forking, etc.O desenvolvimento de software é uma atividade intensive em esforço humano. Assim, a forma como os desenvolvedores encaram suas tarefas é de suam importância. Em um ambiente como o usual em projetos de FOSS (free/open source software) em que profissionais (desenvolvedores pagos) compartilham os esforços de desenvolvimento com voluntários, a moral da comunidade de desenvolvedores e usuários é fundamental. Neste artigo, apresentamos uma análise preliminary utilizando técnicas de análise de sentimentos realizada em um projeto de FOSS. Para isso, executamos a mineração da lista de endereços eletrônicos de um projeto e aplicamos as técnicas propostas aos participantes mais relevantes. Embora a aplicação seja limitada, no momento atual, experamos que essa experiência possa ser benéfica no future para determiner situações que possam afetar os desenvolvedores ou o projeto, tais como baixa produtividade, abandono do projeto ou bifurcação do projeto, entre outras

Ptpn1 deletion protects oval vells against lipoapotosis by favoring lipid droplet formation and dynamics

Trabajo presentado en el The international liver congress, celebrado en Londres (Inglaterra) del 22 al 26 de junio de 2022.[Background and aims]: Activation of oval cells has been related to hepatocyte injury during chronic liver diseases including nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, oval cells plasticity can be affected by the pathological environment. We previously found a protection against hepatocyte cell death by inhibiting protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B). Herein, we investigated the molecular and cellular processes involved in the lipotoxic susceptibility in oval cells expressing or not PTP1B. [Method]: Palmitic acid (PA) induced apoptotic cell death in wild-type (Ptpn1+/+) oval cells in parallel to oxidative stress and impaired autophagy. This lipotoxic effect was attenuated in oval cells lacking Ptpn1 that showed up-regulated antioxidant defences, increased unfolded protein response (UPR) signaling, higher endoplasmic reticulum (ER) content and elevated stearoyl CoA desaturase (Scd1) expression and activity. [Results]: These effects in Ptpn1−/− oval cells concurred with an active autophagy, higher mitochondrial efficiency and a molecular signature of starvation, favoring lipid droplet (LD) formation and dynamics. Autophagy blockade in Ptpn1−/− oval cells reduced Scd1 expression, mitochondrial fitness, LD formation and restored lipoapoptosis, an effect also recapitulated by Scd1 silencing. Importantly, oval cells with LDs were found in livers from Ptpn1−/− mice with NAFLD. [Conclusion]: Ptpn1 deficiency restrained lipoapoptosis in oval cells through a metabolic rewiring towards a “starvation-like” fate, favoring autophagy, mitochondrial fitness and LD formation. Dynamic LD-lysosomal interations likely ensured lipid recycling and, overall, these adaptations protect against lipotoxicity. The identification of LDs in oval cells from Ptpn1−/− mice with NAFLD opens new therapeutic perspectives to ensure oval cells viability and plasticity under lipotoxic liver damage

Las ventajas de la apertura

One of the main consequences of publishing a program as libre (free, open source) software is that its source code is made available to anyone who wants to look at it. In addition, much other information on the development process is often easily accessible on the internet. Some of the consequences of “opening up” the process of building libre softwareare discussed, briefly exploring how these open mechanisms could behave in other areas