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There are number of factors coming together that lead me to believe that open source's moment is right now, today, this year. Open source already runs so many things and just last week as Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States, he asked Scott McNealy of Sun to prepare a report on open source technologies as a first step toward exploring the use of open source in government.
When you combine this with the current economic crisis, the maturation of open source products in general, and a willingness to explore FOSS (free and open source software) as a reasonable alternative, these factors are coming together at this one moment in time and it's time for Open Source to step up.
Quoting:Of course, it's important to remember that the large commercial software companies are also powerful economic entities that create lots of jobs, and they are not going to go away or take this lightly, but it could put some pressure on these companies to put some of their products under open source or reduce costs. But it could also put them into fighting mode. High tech companies were good to Obama and he will likely avoid biting the hand that fed him.
Indeed.
To wit as well, specifically regarding Microsoft:
- Obama's inauguration on Silverlight, well-commented upon recently at http://lxer.com/module/forums/t/28381/
- The failed battle over the last few years to win acceptance of the ODF standard over that of OOXML; well-reviewed in Andy Updegrove's ConsortiumInfo.org Standards Blog pieces such as 'Massachusetts Falls to OOXML as ITD Punts', linked to via http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/90666
- A powerful marketing blitz for MS's products including the upcoming Windows 7
- Consistent underhanded tactics, legal threats, and FUD directed at FOSS and at Linux in particular.
Not even these current round of layoffs at Microsoft will effectively thwart its efforts, given that the threat of so much mindshare and exposure to FOSS remains at stake.
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Not even these current round of layoffs at Microsoft will effectively thwart its efforts, given that the threat of so much mindshare and exposure to FOSS remains at stake.