[starbeast]

>The PC software world did run for quite a few years on the model of predominantly commercial/proprietary software, most of it being closed-source, so it's not like it is some far-fetched idea that doesn't work in economic terms.

And now Microsoft uses linux on the majority of their own cloud offerings. Open source beats propriety software on economic terms a lot of the time. It doesn't matter that both can work in economic terms, it matters which one is better in economic terms.

[TimJYoung]

I don't think this book has been completely written yet. I think we're just now starting to see some of the major issues with FOSS, so don't throw up that "Mission Accomplished" banner yet.

FOSS is very much like the internet, in general: it was great when it was a small group of technical, like-minded, dedicated individuals working towards common goals. It starts falling apart, however, once you introduce the rest of the world into the system because the world primarily works on the basis of ruthless self-interest.

[starbeast]

FOSS was going nowhere until the rest of the world got introduced to it. It was of more or less purely academic interest for a very long time.