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Pundits Weigh in On Open Source's Future

InfoWorld has has a thoughtful piece up on the future of open source. It features a slideshow with interesting, Confucius-worthy input and predictions from many open source pundits, including Alfresco VP and blogger Matt Asay, Google's opensource chief Chris DiBona, and Bruce Perens, creator of the Open Source Definition. Here are some of the points they made that really stood out.

Chris DiBona from Google says:

"It is a shame that the open source development community fights so much."

I agree with this point, although it's transparent to many people who aren't in a position like the one Chris is in. Lack of consolidated, federated efforts keep major parts of the open source community fragmented when they shoudn't be.

Sam Ramji, from Microsoft, says:

"One of biggest misconceptions that we continue to battle is that we compete with open source. Microsoft does not compete with open source."

Usually I agree with Sam, as I did in our interview with him, but I can't go along with him here. Microsoft competes with open source, Sam. Ask the Internet Explorer team.

Eric Raymond, programmer and author of the The Cathedral and the Bazaar says:

"Opportunity? The utter failure of Vista to gain traction even among Microsoft's most loyal users, and Apple's decision to morph into a cellphone and consumer-electronics company that has taken 'Computers' out of its name. These two developments have left a huge Linux-shaped hole in the center of the OS market."

I couldn't agree with this more. This is why we need to see more of an aggressive push toward new form factors for Linux-based devices (such as netbooks), more of a push for Android to reach non-phone devices, and federated, consolidated efforts from the distro developers.

You can find many more provocative opinions in the InfoWorld slideshow. Good reading.

• Android
• linux

by Roy Schestowitz on Dec. 26, 2008

"One of biggest misconceptions that we continue to battle is that we compete with open source. Microsoft does not compete with open source." --Ramji

"I thought immediately of Microsoft’s presence at OSCON this year and the launch of their campaign to pretend they haven’t spent the last ten years trying destroy all of Free Software and Open Source.

[…]

"Microsoft is unique among proprietary software companies: they are the only ones who have actively tried to kill Open Source and Free Software. It’s not often someone wants to be your friend after trying to kill you for ten years, but such change is cause for suspicion. "

--Bradley Kuhn

http://www.softwarefreedom.org/blog/2008/dec/24/capra-free-software/

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by CharlesT on Dec. 28, 2008

I, too, recall Microsoft's efforts to discredit Open Source and free software. Yet, there is clearly a shift in strategy at Microsoft. Is this a case of "if you can't beat'em, join'em", or is there more to it?

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