The State of Open Source

It is no secret to anyone that knows me that I am a supporter of Open Source initiatives. I believe in the concept of sharing our knowledge and efforts so that others can benefit. It is not just the fact that open source products are usually free. It is the fact that anyone is free to examine the working parts, make changes to them, improve them, and then share such enhancements with others so that everyone can benefit. That is the way it is supposed to work. As it often happens, greed is threatening this ideal model. Companies, large and small, and individuals have used open source property, modified it to suit their purposes, and then failed to share their contributions. In other words, they stole the community's property and broke the law by violating the licensing they agreed to. Open source as a concept and a reality is in trouble according to many experts. William Hurley explained it well in his "Welcome to Opensville, Population Zero" blog entry. The Jem Report also has an excellent article ("The Sorry State of Open Source Today") which gives more details about Open Source challenges. We have all benefited, directly or indirectly, by the mere existence of Open Source projects. It is our responsibility as part of the computer-user community to make sure the concept of Open Source is not corrupted by a few greedy parties.