Think, think, think...

After some careful consideration the topic I've decided to blog on is open source software; both its increasing prevalence and industry news/issues. Why open source? There are several reasons:

1. With a downturn in the economy, saving money and cutting costs is an issue that's on everyone's mind. By and large, open source software is free. Free as in beer, and free as in speech.
2. It isn't just for programming geeks anymore. Take Linux; what used to be a daunting task in mastering command line protocol is now made much easier and simpler with a graphic user interface. Most applications are now quite similar to what Microsoft and Apple offer.
3. Its prevalence is on the rise, mainly because of the previous point. Also, you can customize a lot of the things open source software (henceforth OSS) can do, and its damn near bulletproof as far as viruses and worms go, a popular selling point for many.
4. A lot of people are getting fed up with Microsoft and Apple, or they're finally realizing there's a third option out there. Some are finding that being locked into one of the two and whatever they decide to offer is a raw deal. It's the equivalent of a third political party in the U.S. finally being relevant; having other options is nice.
5. People are also realizing that open-source code can be a good thing, as bugs and glitches can be spotted and ironed out in no time, as opposed to waiting for the next update to come out that will fix things (but create some new problems as well). It's like publishing the Death Star's plans online: people would have spotted the problem with having a thermal exhaust port the size of a womp rat leading directly to the reactor. And they would have suggested ways of fixing it before some farm boy came along and blew the space station up.

Of course, there are issues with OSS like Linux. Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst made a good point that he doesn't know how to make money on it (though I disagree with the rest of his comments about how the desktop will soon become irrelevant, but that's a whole 'nother post). There isn't "the one" company that's the leader in open source that can go head-to-head with the big two, either. The open source movement is mainly a hodge-podge of smaller companies without a united front to make some real headway. And converting from one program to another can be a huge hassle.

To explore that last point, I'm going to try installing Ubuntu on my laptop over the break (or at least run it from a DVD) to see how it works, if there are any issues, how easy/hard it is, etc. I've been talking about it for a while and it's time I actually follow through. Which will make for an interesting next blog entry...