Do you think that our world will be truely open?

[tuxmancer]

I was thinking to myself, as one always does, will our world (software wise) truely be open ? Will we reach the point where all big corporations will grow hearts and become fully opensource? Will we enter a new era where opensource will be the norm ? or are my thoughts those of a naive ope-user ,who wishes for a better future ?

[Uncle Spellbinder]

...Will we reach the point where all big corporations will grow hearts and become fully opensource?

NEVER.

Imagine all those big software giants becoming fully opensource. The job losses alone would be tremendous. If there was an opensource Photoshop, who'd pay several hundred dollars for their software when it could be obtained for free?

Based solely on economics, it is not possible.

[KiwiNZ]

The OEMs are not living organisms, they exist to sell products and services with the final goal of achieving maximum attainable profit. To that end they will select and sell the products that best fit that goal. If they felt open source best fits that need then that is what they would select. Currently very few are selecting open source with demonstrates that the profitability does not currently exists, although there is area exceptions, Red hat for example. This may change in the future but for now the current paradigm is the more profitable.

[tuxmancer]

Yes but imagine if those big corporations adopted opensource , think of how awesome it the new software would be , it'll be much bigger, more stable and free. Imagine the flawless code that'll go into such software projects if giant corporations funded it. But as you said there would be mass job losses and corporations not making big money , there has to be a link between opensource and big money somewhere if not a link has to be made . Ubuntu has broken way into "big" corporations , all we need now is someone else to lead the way

[KiwiNZ]

Open source does not always equal better, as does proprietary does not always equal better.

Open source does not always equal free.

[Erik1984]

I guess what we will see more is the partially open model of Facebook and Google. Both companies support various open source initiatives, Google is even a sponsor of the FSF. However they do keep the most valuable pieces of their codebase secret.

[Eggnog]

So long as there is ridiculous money to be made with closed source, there is no chance for a truly and completely open-source world. It will, I think, become more and more open as time goes along, especially if enterprise get tired of the ridiculous seat licenses and support contracts.

[xedi]

Google is even a sponsor of the FSF. However they do keep the most valuable pieces of their codebase secret.

Really? Somewhat ironic considering that many of their software would not be approved by the FSF.

As far as the original question goes: Probably not but I actually thought about how it might be possible: crowd financing. It's understandable that a company does not want to open their software to ensure that they will get paid for it, but if the software is financed by those demanding it beforehand... that could work.

[samalex]

Simple answer, No... There'll always be a place for closed source software as well as open source software, and it's been proven that they can co-exist. What I'd like to see though are things like patents and the DMCA go away or at least be rounded off so corporations and trolls can't legally sue people who use open ideas that've been wrongly patented. Also if someone writes their own software to control a piece of hardware or circumvent some 'copyright' then they should be allowed to do so and share it with the world. That just means the copyright holder did a crappy job in protecting their stuff.

[sffvba[e0rt]

Yes but imagine if those big corporations adopted opensource , think of how awesome it the new software would be , it'll be much bigger, more stable and free. Imagine the flawless code that'll go into such software projects if giant corporations funded it. But as you said there would be mass job losses and corporations not making big money , there has to be a link between opensource and big money somewhere if not a link has to be made . Ubuntu has broken way into "big" corporations , all we need now is someone else to lead the way

Do not confuse Freedom as in Speech with Freedom as in free beer...


404

[forrestcupp]

As far as the original question goes: Probably not but I actually thought about how it might be possible: crowd financing. It's understandable that a company does not want to open their software to ensure that they will get paid for it, but if the software is financed by those demanding it beforehand... that could work.Who wants to pay up front for software that will be completed in a year, if we're lucky enough that it doesn't end up falling through? I'd rather just forget about that kind of risk, go to the store to buy my software, and walk home with it right then and there. If I'm just a user, what do I care if the source code is open or not?

[Erik1984]

Really? Somewhat ironic considering that many of their software would not be approved by the FSF. ...


Yes, really :P http://www.fsf.org/patrons

[Jakin]

Will the world ever truely by open? Nah, its like asking can communism work- in theory yes- and in theory might be best for all; but there is always going to someone wanting monopoly/control.

[forrestcupp]

Will the world ever truely by open? Nah, its like asking can communism work- in theory yes- and in theory might be best for all; but there is always going to someone wanting monopoly/control.

That's probably pushing the rule limits, but I totally agree with what you're saying. There are always going to be people who want power and control, and that is against the whole free and open philosophy. That's never going to change.

Not to mention what has already been discussed about how our economy would be destroyed if everything went to FOSS.

[Paqman]

I was thinking to myself, as one always does, will our world (software wise) truely be open ? Will we reach the point where all big corporations will grow hearts and become fully opensource? Will we enter a new era where opensource will be the norm ? or are my thoughts those of a naive ope-user ,who wishes for a better future ?

Why would open source software displace all other kinds? Seems to me like they can co-exist.

[ikt]

I was thinking to myself, as one always does, will our world (software wise) truely be open ?

It's already that way.








In an alternate universe. ;-)

But seriously don't understand why so wrapped up whether code is free or proprietary, if you write some code and don't want to share it, should I force you to?

I like this world we have currently, it is a horrible mess and 10,000 years in the future we'll look as primitive as people of the first century, but it's our horrible mess :)

[Paqman]

Yes but imagine if those big corporations adopted opensource

Big corporations do use open source.


Imagine the flawless code that'll go into such software projects if giant corporations funded it.

Giant corporations do fund open source. Who do you think builds the Linux kernel?



But as you said there would be mass job losses and corporations not making big money

You're aware of big companies like Red Hat that make huge piles of money selling open source software?

[Jakin]

That's probably pushing the rule limits, but I totally agree with what you're saying. There are always going to be people who want power and control, and that is against the whole free and open philosophy. That's never going to change.

Not to mention what has already been discussed about how our economy would be destroyed if everything went to FOSS.

Maybe i could have used another example, i wasn't trying to be political at all, just what popped in my head at the time.

[forrestcupp]

Maybe i could have used another example, i wasn't trying to be political at all, just what popped in my head at the time.

It's the same thing that popped in my head, too.

[johnnybgoode83]

I guess what we will see more is the partially open model of Facebook and Google. Both companies support various open source initiatives, Google is even a sponsor of the FSF. However they do keep the most valuable pieces of their codebase secret.

I agree with this. I believe a balance between open and proprietary is the future as people are getting fed up with a fully closed model.

[lz1dsb]

Open source does not always equal better, as does proprietary does not always equal better.

Open source does not always equal free.

That's a good point. Especially the last one.
I think that the Open Source movement, I mean in general like open source software and hardware ( a pretty interesting topic that is picking up in the past few years) are quite interesting from a scientific and learning perspective. Whether they're viable as a business perspective, it remains to be seen....

[rg4w]

Free software is never truly free in terms of the expense of making it. Given the amount of time needed to make good software, it's not surprising that a good portion of the funding for free software comes from companies who earned the money in proprietary software.

Given the economics at play, I see only a symbiotic relationship between free and proprietary software, each contributing to the ecosystem that helps the other thrive.