Open Sources | Rodrigues & Urlocker » On the future of open source

January 31, 2006 | Comments: (0)

On the future of open source

TAGS: Open Source

SearchOpenSource has a good interview with me on the future of open source. I prefer when the media whitewashes my comments, because I sound much more intelligent that way. :-)

But here I am, in all my unvarnished ignorance. Some gems:

"I might be naive on Microsoft -- there are pockets within it that are as belligerently against open source as they ever were -- but a majority of people there have a fairly nuanced view of open source. Microsoft is not always right with its perspective of software, but if the open source community tried to wall itself off and be the pizza-eating late night developers club, it could only have so much relevance."

and this on the near-term outlook for open source startups

"I finally think we are on the cusp of a mission critical, widely adopted enterprise open source application. Another great thing I see is that companies -- like LucidEra -- [are] applying to be part of the OSBC [startup] showcase[, companies that] have never been heard of before. A year ago I could say I knew every single company that was coming to the conference.

Also, more and more open source applications will be developed for every layer of the software stack by much better companies. Enterprises will think of open source as their primary way of doing business. Right now it is still nipping at the heels of traditional software, but soon companies will have to have a pretty darn good reason why they are not doing business in an open source fashion."

Varnish, please! The synopsis is this: we're seeing better management teams, better products, and better business models in open source. Ironically, as this wave rises, just being open source won't be enough. Companies will have to offer compelling technology, too.

It's a great time to be buying and selling open source software.

Posted by Matt Asay on January 31, 2006 02:30 PM

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