| Open Source is here to stay |
Mar. 06, 2006
My buddy Roblimo over at NewsForge hit the nail on the head in a recent column where he wrote, "While we're glad your client or employer chose an open source license, it's such a common decision these days that it's no longer newsworthy in and of itself."
Exactly. Open-source, as I've pointed out recently, has become widely accepted as the best way to write software. Indeed, before I sat down to write this, I read that AOL has opened up its code to its AIM client.
Of course, Open AIM isn't really open-source. The Open AIM Developer License makes it abundantly clear to even the most legally clueless of open-source developers that it's not GPL compliant. And, while I'm no lawyer, it appears that AOL has only opened the code in the sense that anyone can work with it. AOL will always own it.
That said, if you can put up with that, the code is available.
In a way, it proves Roblimo's point. Even companies that really aren't open-source friendly, are finding themselves opening up their code. Why? Because, it's the best way, the easiest way, to improve it.
There's a flip side to this.
Some people are asking whether, when companies like Oracle buy out open-source companies, they are transforming it into something else.
No, I don't see it. Open source has always been supported by business.
Once code is truly open, you can't bring it back in again.
Yes, an Oracle could hire the vast majority of Sleepycat Berkeley DB developers, but if Oracle tries to restrict it, other programmers can fork it.
Yes, if Oracle pays the core Sleepycat developers well to work only on the proprietary version, it would be harder. Serious DBMS programmers don't grow on trees. But, the open-source process would continue.
Besides, why would an Oracle do this? The whole point is that open source creates great software. If you try to lock up open source, you only end up returning to the failed past of proprietary software.
No, open-source is here to stay. It's that simple.
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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