NewsForge: Open Source Software Economics

“As an occasional user of Linux, and someone in the software
industry, I’ve followed the ‘Open Source’ movement for quite some
time. To a minority, Open Source Software (specifically GPL
licensed Open Source Software) represents an ideological and
sociological movement, something that will change the world. To the
majority, it is simply a way to get cool and useful software
without going through the expense of buying, or the hassle of
pirating it.

“‘Open Source Software’ is not a new concept; it’s just recently
been coined as a catchy phrase. For decades, people have routinely
released source code into the wild, and told people to do what they
will with it. I was doing it about 15 years ago, and many others
were doing it long before me. What’s different is that people
consider it a movement, and a movement with some momentum–and they
do have a point, but the situation isn’t as simple as it might
seem…”

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