Is Open Source vulnerable to this like Microsoft?

[Dragonbite]

Some people might just cheer at Microsoft's troubles, but I'm more curious as to whether or not the open source environment is immune to this? Do we need to take note of this lesson lest we repeat it?


Microsoft and the Innovator's Paradox (http://blogs.hbr.org/anthony/2010/06/microsoft_and_the_innovators_p.html?utm_source=fee dburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+harvardbusiness+%28HBR.org%29&utm_content=Google+Reader)
So the real problem isn't what Microsoft is doing today. It's what Microsoft did, or didn't do, five, or even 10 years ago. At the time, its base business was a bastion of strength. Today's threats were in their infancies. It would have been the perfect time to plant seeds that today would be blooming profit generators.

Why didn't it? It's The Innovator's Paradox: When you don't need the growth, you act in ways that lead to you not getting the growth you will need. And when you do need the growth, you can't act in ways that deliver it.

Got that?

[YuiDaoren]

Immune? No.

More resistant? Perhaps yes, if folks think in terms of future uses and project leaders (and to some extent, end users) aren't resistant to what are essentially unfounded ideas. It is possible to bring a greater number of new ideas to bear in an environment where all ideas can be tried and examined without having to get approval to do so.

[Dragonbite]

Can an open source project get so big that they become vulnerable to this? Mozilla? OpenOffice.org? Gnome? Linux? MySQL? Java?

Right now they are seen as the underdogs fighting for the bone but what if they succeed? What if Microsoft falls and Linux because the new 800 lb gorilla? Is there anything inherent in open source that will protect these projects from a similar fate?

[Dragonbite]

I think competition is going to be a very important factor. So long as there is competition, there must be innovation.

Microsoft is waking up now that it has competition. Office 2010 looks like the first real reaction as it brings client/cloud office together leapfrogging Google (no local client) and OpenOffice.org (no cloud version) competition.

[juancarlospaco]

OpenOffice.org got cloud version.
...but is not finished

[kevin11951]

I think competition is going to be a very important factor. So long as there is competition, there must be innovation.

Microsoft is waking up now that it has competition. Office 2010 looks like the first real reaction as it brings client/cloud office together leapfrogging Google (no local client) and OpenOffice.org (no cloud version) competition.

I disagree, ThinkFree Office has both online and local clients for its products, and their local client stores its files both locally and in the cloud automatically, and their product - to a large extent - can be drop-in-replacements for MS Office

[koenn]

you're asking the wrong question.

The article you point to is about the evolution of businesses, corporations, and business decisions
Open source isn't a corporation or a business.
So you'd have to rethink your question, eg
which business models that today are common in open source, would be vulnerable to this, or
which corporations that 'sell' open source products, would be vulnerable to this, or
...

Meanwhile, inherent to open source is that it's open source : available, modifiable, redistributable, ...
So if an open source corporation gets stuck on that growth/no growth curve, some new disruptive start-up can just take their code and do something new with it.
So you might get something like "businesses come and go, open source is for ever".
(yes, I know I sound lile a fanboy now).

[juancarlospaco]

ed/Vim/Emacs and Latex can do that, and less bloated.

ed
a
#latex goes here
wq "$HOME/Ubuntu One/file"

Your file in the cloud

[Dr. C]

Not only is FLOSS immune to this it is actually the direct result of the innovators dilemma and is currently the biggest beneficiary. So if anything the article predicts that FLOSS will be dominant form of software licensing in the maturity phase.

[Sealbhach]

Maybe as an example, you might say Firefox got a little fat and complacent, until Google Chrome showed up and made them work a little harder. I don't know haw fair an assessment that is though.

.