Open source in a closed market

In a truly open market the battle to set new mobile standards would be fairly clear.

It’s not, because this is not an open market.

In an open market we could await the Microsoft Zune phone, a host of Android kit, whatever LiMo and Symbian decide to come up with, along with RIM and Blackberry devices running on the networks of our choice.

In an open market this would sort itself out in Internet time. Equipment makers might mix-and-match features among the various open source offerings.

I personally don’t think closed source would stand much of a chance in the long run, although I would enjoy being proven wrong

But the mobile market is a cartel, a very small one.

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Open source survey: many questions remain

Used in the right context, statistics can often illuminate and point the way. On the other hand, these days, given the degree of spin around, they are more often used to confuse and blur an issue.

That's why I am always suspicious about surveys. Over the years I've been writing about free and open source software, I've seen numerous surveys from the proprietary software crowd - which always tend to paint a positive picture of proprietary software. Curious.

And then there are surveys from proponents of free and open source software - which, mysteriously, end up favoring the FOSS community and its software.

It's not surprising that the great Benjamin Disraeli once referred to statistics as being the third kind of lies - after lies and damn lies.

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Open Source is the 'software establishment', report says

A new report examining trends in the open source market says more and more organizations are jumping on FOSS, for more reasons than just the price tag.

IT researcher the Standish Group released the report which surveyed participants over five years, and claims “the Open Source movement is no longer the anti-software-industry establishment... Open Source software is the software establishment!”

Though measuring the Open Source market can prove difficult, Standish’s research estimates Open Source software will save users upwards of US$60 billion annually.

In general, Standish found that an increasing number of users believe Open Source software to be more secure, better quality, and more reliable than its commercial counterparts.

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