n Prentice over at Gartner has posted an interesting blog article called “Open Source’s Dying Narrative.” While I don’t quite get the title, it’s an insightful piece about how open source has attracted attention and (gasp) money from venture capitalists and large software vendors in order to become a bigger part of the software industry.
Prentice dispels the romantic myth of the “fiercely independent geek-heroes” toiling away on open source, presumably without a worry about how they will make a living. I think the most important observation Prentice makes is that open source continues to get stronger:
And its doing so because it is becoming an integral component of modern software businesses. Gartner has been predicting that by 2011, at least 80% of all commercial software solutions will include elements of open source. That prediction is based on our observation that nearly all software vendors are finding ways to weave Open Source Software within, and around, their core offerings. Its becoming quite common to find open source software that is tightly bound to some proprietary component either other software or vendor-specific service offerings…
The fundamental principle upon which this aging narrative has been crafted that Open Source sits in juxtaposition to proprietary software rather than being connected with it on a continuum is today a false dichotomy.
Read the whole story at http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source/gartner-evolving-nature-open-source-212
