Top Most Economies of Open Source

Perhaps the most unexpected success story of the last decade is the proliferation of open source software.

When Richard Stallman began touting his ideas regarding free software (free as in free beer) many viewed this as idealistic. Of course Stallman had no issues about getting paid to write software. His assertion was that software represented information that should be shared. It was expected at this time that open source software would play at most a minor role in mainstream development.

Historically software vendors vigorously guarded their source code to maintain competitive advantage. What we know today is availability of source code is an asset to developers, while competitors are only slightly hindered due to modern code dis-assemblers..

Linksys made history by opening their source code, which spawned a mini-industry of firmware upgrades that fueled sales of their hardware. Linksys effectively changed their revenue model from a hardware/firmware offering to a hardware solution with a basic operating system that users can easily upgrade, often for free.

Vendors are exploring other revenue models that, for instance, combine open source software with enhancements (e.g. IBM Websphere) or offer support and consulting (e.g. SpringSource).

Whether you like the idea of Open Source or not, odds are that just about any modern application makes use of some Open Source software. .NET developers are adopting open source tools like nHibernate and Spring.net. Look under the wraps at IBM's Websphere and you will find it is largely based on Open Source solutions.

The reason is that in many domains, Open Source solutions now offer industry best solutions. This seems to be a contradiction to all things we learned about free market economics. How can free software compete with commercial solutions?

The answer is quite simple: marketing. We take for granted that a vendor needs to peddle their wares. Competition results in better products for the consumer, however sales teams skew the picture to gain competitive advantage.

In general Open Source solutions have no marketing, no sales teams, no slick presentations. The community vets these solutions, allowing the best to bubble to the top. It is the lack of marketeers that allow Open Source solutions to compete on merit alone, and that has resulted in today's plethora of high quality Open Source options.

Perhaps the most common misunderstanding is about how Open Source solutions as funded. Certainly some are created out of passion, career enhancement or ego fulfillment. However Microsoft has performed so well that competitors now fund the Open Source community. In fact most large vendors have paid positions that contribute either part or full time to the community.

It will be interesting to see what the future holds for the Open Source community. In the meantime, enjoy the riches available now, and contribute back to the community if you have the chance.