I’m with Matt Asay when he asks and answers:

Has open source come to include so much that it’s somewhat meaningless? If so, should we return to the free-software roots that defined its infancy?

Personally, I think the bigger the tent, the better it is for open source. Even a tent that includes a wide array of open-source leeches, an issue taken up by Bill Snyder in InfoWorld.

I like the big tent (and even, increasingly, the “leeches”) because the broadening is largely driven by the same motivation: finding ways to feed one’s family by writing more open-source software.

That, after all, is really the reason for the term “open source” in the first place: make it more relevant so more people could create sustainable businesses around it.

Purists might think that open source should be applied to an elite few (and I do hate that Microsoft can now be used in the same sentence as open source) but the fact of the matter is, the more people promoting, using and selling open source the better it is for open source.

We live in a time when people expect openness and the ability to participate in development, so why not build the biggest tent ever for open source?

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 8:11 am by Nicole C. Engard and is filed under Open Source, Openness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.