Economic Slump hits Open Source

adamjone writes: "C|NET and Yahoo! are running a story about the hit that open source software is taking during this economic slump. Open source development is a hobby for me, not my full-time job. I find that I have more time to work on my project during times when my full-time job is slow, or we don't have enough work. Is open source truly being driven by those who make it their full-time occupation? If so, is there a happy medium for keeping bread on the table and still working within the open source community?" At least Microsoft is doing well.

Comments

Isn't this part of the problem.

[jvmatthe]

In the article about Microsoft doing well, MSNBC writes:

And its antitrust settlement with the Justice Department earlier this month is expected to free it to focus more fully on expanding beyond PC software.

Isn't that part of the problem? That is to say, are people so blind that they don't see that "expanding beyond PC software" mean (for Microsoft) that they will leverage their grip on the consumer PC desktop to gain advantages in new markets and shove out competitors [sic]? This line of the article says, to me, "the antitrust settlement effectively frees Microsoft to continue to violate antitrust laws".