Open Sources | Rodrigues & Urlocker » Open source applications and the changing face of competition

July 29, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Open source applications and the changing face of competition

TAGS: Open Source

I remember a few years ago speculating that open source applications would never happen: not a wide enough development community with interest and aptitude in writing that kind of software. (I mention it here.) In short, I had bought into the open source myth that open source is all about hordes of developers contributing code to this project and that out of love and benevolence.

Older and wiser now....

In the past week I've learned about Coupa, an open source self-requisitioning procurement system; DimDim, an open source web conferencing solution, DabbleDB, a...well, I'm not exactly sure what it is (maybe a thneed? It does cool things with data), and a range of others.

We are now forming a world where every software product we buy will be open source. I'd say there will always be proprietary software, but I'm not sure as to why anymore. Now that the business models are firming up for open source, why would you ever care to weaken your competitive advantage by keeping code closed?

That said, this begs a larger question: what happens to open source competition once all the code is open? My bet? Product innovation will return to the fore as the primary decision driver. The difference will be that this innovation will not lock you in...it will just lock competitors out.

Posted by Matt Asay on July 29, 2006 07:26 AM

RATE THIS ARTICLE: