History

Free Software and the Web share quite a few principles and some history

• The Web started with free software
  • The CERN server
  • Mosaic
• The Web is used for free software projectsand free software
• And free software hosts a large part of the Web
• Both are based on the concept of free exchange of ideas
• Both focus on platform and language independance, universality is a goal.

Why W3C makes free software

Software has to be present at all stages of a specification life:

• Testbeds
• Early testing
• Demonstators
• Validators
• Converters

Why W3C releases it as free software

• Lower the developement costs
  • Getting patches and bug fixes
  • More frequent releases
  • Help on packaging and porting
• Reach a wider audience
  • Anyone can try it
  • Can be enclosed on cheap media
  • Allow security checkings on sensible environments

What is available

• LibWWW: HTTP/1.1 C sources and more
• Amaya: the Web browser and authoring testbed
• Jigsaw: the Java based Web server with HTTP/1.1 proxy
• Rpmfind: testbed for Web based software distribution
• Validators: HTML, CSS, P3P
• Tidy: the HTML cleaning tool and converter

Conclusions

• W3C uses the OpenSource model
• Bypassing releases schedule by using CVS export proves being a success
• Large code base adoption takes time