“This article expands upon my previous one, ‘The Open Source
Monopoly.’ In it, I laid out the premise that commercial open
source (COS) companies the likes of Red Hat, MySQL, and JBoss are
examples of a new trend in the open source movement. In this trend,
which I call the ‘Commercial Model’ of open source; these companies
have positioned themselves to be the de facto ‘names’ in the open
source movement. While this may be seen as a natural evolution of
the marketplace, I believe that it violates the true spirit of open
source, a spirit based in freedom, artistic expression, and
technological innovations. The result of this trend is what I am
calling an effective monopoly, one in which a select group of
brand-name open source companies dominate the industry. Thanks to
this monopoly, open source is ending up less the revolution it was
intended to be and more an opportunity for the industry at large to
redefine old practices under new terms…”
Related Story:
Galatea:
The Open Source Monopoly(Jan 11, 2005)