“Open Source has entered mainstream consciousness. We’ve seen
Linux IPOs rise, we’ve seen Linux IPOs fall, and we’ve seen Linux
IPOs fail to make it out the door at all. The feeling among some
long-standing open source programmers (“hackers,” in all the best
and correct senses of the word) is that their movement has been
tarnished by efforts to make a business out of Open Source.”
“Yet the Open Source revolution is far from over. The most
exciting and the most challenging phase of the revolution has only
just begun. Open Source is indeed being assimilated into the
business world of Silicon Valley. Yet assimilation will change the
business world forever. The new economic rules fostered by Open
Source will have as profound an impact as the new technologies and
new development models that have emerged from Open Source.”
“Why the doubts, then? Why do hackers and venture
capitalists alike fear that the crest of the Open Source wave has
passed? Because both are bewildered by a false dilemma. Open Source
appears caught in a paradox; to gain acceptance and exposure, one
must engage in an act of charity: giving away intellectual
property. Having gained acceptance, though, one must then make
money off that acceptance, and the act of charity limits one’s
ability to do so.“