June 11, 2009 8:40 AM PDT
Open source will never do that...
Years ago I proclaimed open source would never be relevant in the application market. Now I work for an open-source applications company.
Lesson? It's generally not a good idea to underestimate open source's potency.
To wit, here are three "Who would have thought open source could do that?" announcements that recently hit my RSS reader:
- NovusEdge is demoing open-source energy management for "massive commercial buildings." OpenRemote does open-source home automation, but this suggests the idea can take on a different scale.
- Human resource professionals spend time and money tracking job applicants. Well, now they can save their money by using open-source applicant-tracking applications. People used to say open source could only commodify broad application markets. I don't think this qualifies....
- Or how about applying open-source principles to other markets? I'm an advisor to the Open Source Teaching Project, which lowers barriers to quality education by "open sourcing" course curricula and delivering it online.
- While not new, it's also impressive to see proprietary software vendors investing in open source. Five years ago, would you have expected Citrix to invest in open-source router company Vyatta's $10 million Series C round of financing? Yes, it's an attack on Cisco by Citrix, and so driven by healthy self-interest, as The VAR Guy writes, but that's the point: the world is discovering plenty of self-interest in open source.
I'm sure open source is not good for something. I'm equally sure that deficiency won't last. It never does.
What are some of the more interesting applications you've seen for open source?
Follow me on Twitter @mjasay.
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
do you personally guarantee that all companies that use open source are protected from patent wars - just because you think that open source is cute?
open source <> free and if you want good free software, **** and go and download sql server 2008 express edition.
until then, go and play with your toys
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/10/24/bmw-wants-to-help-develop-open-source-in-vehicle-platform/
"BMW wants to help develop a system using an open-source Linux platform it's helping to create along with Google and Wind River Systems. "
Let's hope they get some (pardon the pun) traction with this otherwise I can't image MS SYNC as the key player for vehicle systems (think MP3, DVD/TV playback, WiFi, infotainment systems).
The other key player is Harmon-Becker and they're using some proprietary UI on QNX Neutrino RTOS.
- Paul
- by June 11, 2009 6:02 PM PDT
- "Years ago I proclaimed open source would never be relevant in the application market. Now I work for an open-source applications company."
- Reply to this comment
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(11 Comments)Have you considered the possibility then that your employer is irrelevant?
It would give you more credibility.
Note that I don't agree with your initial assessment, I'm just suggesting that consistency is admirable.