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Can Open Source Companies Stay That Way?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the gates-creak-down dept.

JoeGee writes: "According to this article on ZD Net, more and more companies born from open source projects are beginning to move towards closed source products as a source of revenue. Version 5 of GFS will be closed source, and even SuSE's director of sales Holger Dyroff has a quote that seems to disparage the service model of revenue. The one company that refuses to change its operations is, surprisingly, Red Hat. Red Hat CTO Michael Tiemann says 'We believe the Red Hat brand stands for open-source.'" Yes, this is a dupe. Bad Tim! *whack*

3 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. Re:wrong product by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    very literate

  2. Open Source was a mass delusion by ab315 · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Open Source was a mass delusion fueled by the internet bubble. These types of mass hysteria are very common during economic booms. History will look back on it as a form of collective geek madness. With the benefit of hindsight any objective person can see that open source makes about as much sense as farmers giving away food and trying to generate revenue by providing cookery lessons. The whole open source meme plays on the idea that geeks in their bedrooms want to believe they can out-code the big players and produce better software. The real flaw in the whole thing is that the strength big players is not (and does not need to be) in their coding, but in their ability to organize and focus enormous human and financial resources on creating and deploying software technology sustained over the long term.

    1. Re:Open Source was a mass delusion by nomadic · · Score: 1, Flamebait


      Open Source was a mass delusion fueled by the internet bubble. These types of mass hysteria are very common during economic booms. History will look back on it as a form of collective geek madness. With the benefit of hindsight any objective person can see that open source makes about as much sense as farmers giving away food and trying to generate revenue by providing cookery lessons. The whole open source meme plays on the idea that geeks in their bedrooms want to believe they can out-code the big players and produce better software. The real flaw in the whole thing is that the strength big players is not (and does not need to be) in their coding, but in their ability to organize and focus enormous human and financial resources on creating and deploying software technology sustained over the long term.

      I have no comment on the above passage. Just felt it shouldn't have been marked troll, so I'm re-posting it.

      What is with this board and the incessant need to dismiss every opposing viewpoint as just an attempt to start an argument. What kind of ego do you have to have to believe that anyone who doesn't agree with you is just putting forth their own opinion in order to annoy YOU? I mean, grow up.