Aug 20
Bingo to Jeremy
But when you stop and look at how technology has changed and opened in response to networks, the Internet, simple/open protocols, view source, and self-serve business systems, there’s a clear pattern emerging. Strong forces are at work here–strong enough that you’re better taking advantage of them rather than fighting them. You will lose. I don’t care if you’re Microsoft, Google, or even Facebook (the latest golden child).
Open beats closed. Simple beats complex. Freedom of choice beats being told what technology to use.
August 20th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
I guess the question is, how far into the future are we talking about? As of right now, the open source model is in no position to be much of a threat to the established practices. As soon I begin to feel optimistic about open source, I’m often given a reality check every morning when I go to work, where our thousands of desktops run Windows and the .doc format is the de-facto standard for any document. Microsoft controls the vast majority of market share for both the desktop OS and the majority of applications are written for that platform. As for the open source alternatives, they often lag far behind the competition. Frankly, I don’t see this changing anytime soon, even despite open source’s gains in the past few years.
August 21st, 2007 at 5:58 pm
Uhm.. may be, may be you’re right. Still I think that SaaS will _use_ free software, but it won’t be much like. The GPLv3 didn’t close the loophole, you know, and now only goodwill ASPs will give us back what they consider not strategical. The future is just as we will want and act to let it be..
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:31 am
SaaS world is relatively new. Like Microsoft of the traditional software world, people may not be as forthcoming. But I am pretty sure they will eventually budge. Open Source has already shown the world what it can do. I am sure it will again show the world its value sooner then later. I am optimistic.