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The Shifting App Landscape, and the Open Source Opportunities

Keir Thomas, author of Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference--a free online book--has an interesting post up called How Open Source Can Beat the Status Quo. In it, he looks at some of the current challenges to the computing status quo, and how they define opportunities for open source. I agree with some of the opportunities he points to, and there are a few more worth mentioning.

Thomas makes the point that the increasingly popular use of online applications, such as Google Docs, represents a large threat to Microsoft's software licensing strategy, which relies on discrete computers running discrete applications. That point isn't lost on the open source community. In fact, in the recent Future of Open Source survey, respondents identified hosted, SaaS (software-as-a-service) applications as the emerging trend that would have the largest impact on commercial open source companies.

I'm actually surprised that there aren't more open source applications showing up hosted on the web. It's a very efficient way to deliver applications to large audiences of users, and it does indeed fly directly in the face of Microsoft's long-standing focus on standalone applications running on discrete computers.

Thomas also points to netbooks as a disruptive trend that represents a big opportunity for open source. One aspect of this that gets discussed very little online is that the platform software is not the only issue. There are lots of writers discussing opportunities for Linux and Android on netbooks, but what about the huge numbers of open source applications that are running on netbooks?

Consider PortableApps, for example. The site provides a bushel of top open source applications that you can get in one download and put on a netbook, or a USB thumb drive. Many people are putting these small-footprint, free, open source applications on Windows netbooks. Here again, the question becomes whether users need to pay hefty fees for Microsoft Office, when perfectly suitable, free, open source alternatives are easy to get.

One important trend that isn't in Thomas' post is the overarching mobile technology movement. The market for mobile tech has boomed in recent years, and even in tough economic times, people are shelling out money for smartphones, and netbooks, and the like. There is a hunger for good applications for these devices, and many of the ones that are arriving are new and unique. It would be good to see App Store developers agree on open standards so that developers can write once and deliver mobile applications to many open source platforms.

One other truth about mobile technology is that it is not a space where Microsoft is a leader. Windows Mobile, and Symbian's platform, are both facing serious threats from the iPhone and Android. There are some serious shifts going on in the technology landscape, and there are multiple new opportunities for open source as a result. 

• Google Docs
• microsoft office
• linux
• Netbooks

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