Nickname: Ecacofonix

Review: Nice article. It does appear that the open source/free source movement is reaching a tipping point. Sun's decision to open source everything late last year was a big decision indeed. And the revenue models for open source money making are also evolving, with Red Hat just about beginning to even turn a profit. See this page for more info on making money from open source software - http://www.eit.in/sw/free_software/making_money/making_money_from.html The potential for open source software is of course simply enormous, once we consider that a miniscule percentage of desktop users use open source software. It will be interesting to watch how companies innovate and bring in new business models to compete in many niche segments in the software industry, which is where evolving revenue models could be most challenging for open source companies. Some thoughts from EC @ http://www.eit.in

Date reviewed: Jul 10, 2006 11:33 AM

Nickname: Sandeep

Review: I believe that slowly we are moving towards a stage where most of the software starting with the OS then App Server, WebServer, Portal Server, and then different components on top of it like collaboration, content management, etc. will be available as open source products. We are now in the phase where open source products are catching up with "paid" products. Down the line we will see huge demand not only for product, but also for vendors that can provide the actual implementation and testing services. Considering the amount of license fees companies like IBM, Microsoft, etc. charge as compared to free open source (with not better but comparable features) it will be a matter of a few years before the current business model changes completely.

Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 7:09 PM

Nickname: phil shapiro

Review: i became an open source believer from reading emails on the Digital Divide Network email list: http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide. The smartest people on this list seem to all be open source believers. The things they say make sense to me.

Date reviewed: Jun 2, 2006 11:25 AM

Nickname: Kris

Review: Open source is the future for the Third World countries. Today an Intel PC in India can be bought at a street price of USD $200. Mind you, this is the price the ultimate consumer pays. To load on this price, software of another $200 or $300 does not make economic sense. Hence we witness in countries like India, China, the fast movement to Linux. Basically, Linux helps government and the general public because it is cost effective. No amount of money thrown by a Microsoft or an Oracle (datbase software) can stop this movement. The growth in PCs is in the 50% to 60% range in countries like India. This is where the action for open source software is happening and will get stronger and stronger.

Date reviewed: Apr 1, 2006 3:21 AM

Nickname: J. Teutloff

Review: The key for Open Source to continue on its growth path over the coming years is robust infrastructure. At the heart of any Open Source ecosystem sits a versatile version control system such as CVS or the increasingly popular Subversion and a powerful search engine such as Koders, the former of which introduces structure, while the latter provides visibility into the code base; two factors absolutely critical to making the ecosystem function. As the ecosystem grows, so will the need for even better infrastructure; infrastructure that promises a faster path to financial (or qualitative) return on investment (ROI). Companies that focus on building this infrastructure should bode well in the years ahead. Let's not forget how Google got started.

Date reviewed: Jan 11, 2006 3:09 AM

Nickname: ObjectWeb

Review: Due to its function as a key enabling technology for the information society and to its compliance with open standards, middleware is quickly commoditized. The middleware market therefore appears doomed to fail even more drastically than other software markets. Now that mainstream industry players realize that this approach makes economical sense, a new rationale for middleware development is emerging. A business-neutral meta-organization federating vendors, customers and governmental agencies, as ObjectWeb does, shall target the sustainable development of a business ecosystem where stakeholders could develop beneficial middleware strategies in line with their business and societal requirements. See: http://os3g.blogspot.com/2005/08/economic-perspective-on-open-source.html

Date reviewed: Jan 9, 2006 5:33 PM

Nickname: Raju

Review: Excellent article! And don't forget Laszlo Systems and the OpenLaszlo Server--one of the first open source projects concentrating on the presentation layer and one of the leading Web 2.0 technologies.

Date reviewed: Jan 6, 2006 7:12 PM

Nickname: Gunnar Langemark

Review: If you can't afford to give away your code as open source, and you can't make people pay for your software - then you're out of business. That's fair in the marketplace. A price tag of zero is still business. Charging for software is not in the bill of rights, and not part of human rights. So if the traditional business model of charging for code is no longer valid, then the rules of the market have changed. It's that simple.

Date reviewed: Jan 5, 2006 10:15 AM

Nickname: Michael

Review: Gyp Joe: Strictly in terms of market forces, open source efforts are not meant to be fair. They are meant to overcome artificial market forces that keep malignant software as the status quo. By providing software for free (as in freedom), open source projects can offer software to the public in a way that cannot be put down by the efforts of a monopoly. Generally speaking, that sounds pretty damn fair to me. Mr. Barton: open source does not cost taxpayers a dime. If you question this may I point you to the first tenet of open source, which is that it is free to all. The spirit of open source is not based on greed and capitalism, as you have implied, but instead it is based on the sincere want of freedom. Freedom is more valuable to intelligence than profit. And freedom is the reason why individuals, small business, and corporations invest their time in open source. Open Source is meant to help good people do good work by offering freedom as an alternative to tradition.

Date reviewed: Jan 5, 2006 9:33 AM

Nickname: opensource

Review: Thanks to open source, we can start our start-up.

Date reviewed: Jan 3, 2006 6:29 PM