June 16th, 2005
Is open source a scam against itself?
Forbes says it so it must be true. Open source software is a scam that open source software companies are running on themselves.
The "news hook" here is IBM offering its recently-acquired Gluecode code free, in a move that seems aimed at JBoss. Author Daniel Lyons finds himself practically laughing at JBoss chief Marc Fleury (left), catching him in a moment of self-pity. "Where does this all end? When the whole deck of cards, the whole software industry, falls apart?"
In fact, JBoss is moving smartly into Asia and into government markets. I wrote about JBoss in March. They’re not backing down from a fight with anyone, even IBM. Customers will benefit from Gluecode’s free code and from JBoss’ offerings. One statement of exasperation is not despair, unless that’s what you’re looking for.
It’s true that open source brings what I would call Moore’s Law efficiencies to software for the first time. It’s speeding the industry’s evolution, and since IBM is the biggest player it benefits. Open source may indeed be bad for industry revenues overall.
But it’s the old, proprietary, EULA-based, closed source world that was the scam, not the open source world.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 06/16/05
