quote:
You would be forgiven for thinking that the open source in business debate had been finally put to bed with the likes of IBM backing Linux and even the notoriously secretive Apple opening parts of Mac OS X to the public. However, you'd be wrong.
With Microsoft's announcement that open source software is a "cancer" and a communist plot, it would seem that the debate rages on -- but the Microsoft statement only gives one side of the argument. The question isn't "Is Open Source Good For Business?," rather it should be, "Is Business Good for Open Source?"
Intellectual property is big business. IBM, the company which is pinning its hopes on flogging Linux-based "solutions" to medium and large businesses, registered 2,886 patents last year, and it isn't alone. Of course, such companies claim that this is done to protect their research; after all they've spent a lot of money developing ideas...
...If anything is a cancer in Linux, it is the involvement of business. Unfortunately, however, it's one tumour that will not be treated. One only need look at BeOS to see what the future holds for an operating system that gets no substantial foothold in industry. It doesn't matter how good your product is if no-on uses it.
This, of course, matters less to Linux, as it is open source. The continued development of Linux is not dependent on continued support from a parent company, and though it's handy to have so many distributions to choose from, it's not necessary.
The ironic twist is that hackers, who rail against Unisys or Thompson for demanding licensing fees for GIF and MP3 compression, respectively, are themselves inviting business to eat at their table.
The only options are either to renounce business, which would be counter productive -- and too little, too late -- or to climb down from the open-source-high-horse and admit that their "altruistic" reasons for producing software are largely self serving.
Scaremongering.
Open source software has a ton of developers who could not give a shit about "business". Many "linux companies" are currently courting "business" because it has all the money.
As this article hints at, the real problems for open source software are firstly, patented proprietary file formats, and secondly misrepresentation in the media, the latter being something that this article seems to be indulging in, if only slightly.
In my opinion.
