Investing in Open Source?

echrist1 asks: "I'm in my school's investment club, and I'm in charge of investing $10,000 (real money) into technology equities. Clearly I want to make a profit, but I also want to do something to help the Open Source movement. Does anyone know of mutual funds that invest specifically in companies that further Open Source?"

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[WindBourne]

I have been watching it as well. In fact, I remember it from the late 80's. The simple answer is that if you are investing OTHER peoples money, you must pay attention to what will make money. In fact, if you are here asking, then you really MUST pay attention to what will make money shortly. Considering the world situation, tech can be blown out in 100 different ways.

Try energy. Oil is a good one. It is almost certain that W's tax cuts will be removed (and soon), but the simple answer is that China and India are are on a tear. They will be increasing demand on ALL oil resources. I would look heavily at any oil company. In addition, consider nukes AND alternatives. High Oil prices combined with Global warming will force us down this path. Wind energy companies are good ones. GE and westinghouse power are interesting.

Finally, consider looking more around the globe. America is heading towards a major slow down. W has ran up a major deficit like Reagan did. In addition, he is spending all sorts of money on funding the war, tearing apart EPA, buying the most expensive drugs for seniors, etc, and even cutting alternative energy research WHILE giving tax cuts to oil. Combine with moving core manufactuering to China, and you will soon see a collapse in our money policies. It is only a matter of time before the dollars starts to sink and we will be forced to raise interest rates AND taxes to keep foreign money flowing into America. This would normally induce a major global depression (think 1930s), but enough business is globalized as to allow the other markets to move forward without us.