The Times, They are a-changin

Several factors have contributed to a recent surge among big-name companies in supporting open-source software. Chief among these is the increasing importance of interoperability in a Web 2.0 world. This is true across the board, from big-business capitalism, to the little-guy blogger, to governments around the globe–the world needs its data in transparent patent-free formats.

Microsoft is slowly responding. From Windows Live
to OOXML, to a partnership with Novell, and now a recent announcement that they will financially fund Apache, its biggest open-source competitor in the server market (this blog runs on an Apache server). Read more here.

This is all welcome news, but it is going to require a corresponding change in business model, one which open-source friendly companies like Novell, Red Hat, Sun, and IBM have been pioneering and perfecting for years. It is the move from a product-based model, where one tries to differentiate their product from its competition in order to sell the most items, to a service-based model, where you are selling your ability to help others.

In any case, the future will be interesting. In my opinion, Microsoft is on the right track. The sooner it moves to a service-based business model the better, for us and them.

Related posts:

1. Update on Changing Times
2. Why Open Source?
3. Free Office Software: OpenOffice 3.0 Released!
4. Google enters the Browser Wars with “Chrome”
5. Is Ubuntu Linux Mainstream?

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