Open Source Forming a Dot Com Bubble?

sebFlyte writes "ZDNet is running an interesting look at the sudden upswing of investment in open source products and the ensuing debate as to whether the open source business model has given us a bubble (akin to the dot-com bubble) that is about to burst. The counter-argument is that the increase in investment is just the natural progression of a robust business model whose time has come. One point that few people, whatever their viewpoint, could disagree with is that the key to a financially successful open source project rests with the community, rather than just the technology."

Comments

Re:I couldn't disagree more

[DogDude]

Now that F/OSS is becoming more famous, it's actual market value is becoming more apparent, leading investors to pump more money into it. Clearly there will be open source flops, just as in any industry, but for the most part, I don't think we'll see people in 10 years saying "wait a minute, this open source company really is worth $0, just as it was valued before the bubble!". In fact, with the help of VC funds, I bet open source will actually develop into a stronger, more stable market presence.

That's what I'm talking about now... where's the value to a software company where anybody can very easily just reverse engineer their entire product and re-package it in an afternoon? The barrier to entry for the competition is virtually -zero-. What is an investor buying? There's no physical assets and no intellectual property to speak of. How does an open source company maintain any kind of value, at all? We haven't seen any open source companies that are anywhere near large enough to have to contend with this issue, which is another reason why I'd stay away from OSS as an investment. I understand what OSS is, and I own a business, but I still I don't understand how an OSS company can maintain any value besides the money they have in the bank.