“Has the open source software movement become a victim of its
own success? A provocative new study by a longtime software analyst
suggests that the giants of the commercial software world are
cashing in on the popularity of open source and becoming the
dominant force in what was once called the free software
movement.“Perhaps the most startling statistic in the report is this:
IBM’s open source revenue in 2007 was equal to that of Red Hat, the
largest and most influential open source company. Not only did IBM
equal Red Hat’s open source revenue, but the next largest revenue
earners were Sun and Oracle, according to the study. What does that
mean for the long run…?”