Is open source winning ?

In general, open source refers to any program whose source code is made available for use or modification as users or other developers see fit.(it.jhu.edu/glossary/mno.html)

This is a less-confusing name for what is also called ‘free software’. It describes the development method used for many pieces of software, including the Linux kernel, where the source is freely available for anyone to work on, or modify, or learn from, or use in other projects.(www.simplemachines.it/arm-linux/book/glossary.html).

I can go around finding different definitions of the phrase but it means the same thing, free operational software with its source code with the freedom to edit it and recompile and re-distribute. On my first encounter with the phrase my understanding of it was that a group of talented individuals were coming together to bring down one monster’s monopolistic business model. The idea was that by developing better applications that everyone can use freely as they see fit, people will drift away from the use of proprietary software.

Not so long ago a friend of mine who happens to be a colleague, had an interesting debate about whether that part of the mission was accomplished (taking down the…you know who). His exact question was “Has open source taken off as it should have, has it made the impact on the monster as it should have?”

While it has been a while since the open source boom, I personally think it has made the impact, just that while its a big impact, its a bit subtle. There are a number of factors to consider here.

Firstly, Microsoft develops applications that will run on its platform only, while on the other hand open source developers are developing applications that do the same thing in a better way, just that they run across all the platforms, e.g. Open Office and Microsoft Office. They basically do the same thing, but the one is better than the other because it is operational across all the platforms. This in turn doesn’t really give the users the inclination to move from Office to Open Office.

Also since Open Office is open source, how do we know that the monster is not using some of the code for Open Office to try and make its product better? There should be a clause saying everyone can use the source code except Microsoft. Label it discrimination or whatever you want, but they started it.

Some are of the opinion that open source took off in the server side, citing Apache and Mysql as the top web server applications of choice across the world. That’s another point to consider, open source has made its presence felt in that segment of the market
but the client side of things, its not that powerful.

Another important thing we need to consider is the perception factor. Windows has spread like wildfire, or better still, like a certain disease that is forever making headlines in Africa. As such to win this war, we need to change the stigmatization against *nix based systems. People are of the view that they are hard to use, that they are for power users, and we need to let people know that you can still use open source systems for their day to day activities. The more people start using this remedy, the more quickly the disease
will be cured.

In conclusion: Yes my friend, open source is winning, it’s just that it’s doing so slowly and quietly. I don’t know why, but for some reason good people always take the bad ones into consideration, and no matter how bad, they always find it in their heart to forgive. That’s why open source priests find it necessary to cater for the infected, after all, its not their fault. If I had the order of the world, the monster would be gone by the end of business tomorrow. Feel free to voice your opinions on this topic.

Peace.