The open source world continues to mature. I’ve been a follower of computer and software technology for over 16 years and, for me, the most intriging is open source. The idea of software being built for the good of the world with no purchase cost incurred, makes sense. Our infrastructure should be “free”. We have roads, utility systems, etc… which are essentially free. We pay some taxes, but I get a whole lot of infrastructure for those tax dollars. Why shouldn’t the internet infrastructure also be close to free? It’s a knowledge utility system.
So now open source has grown out of it’s toddler stage and has become a gregarious teen who is more than happy to stand on thier own. This is evidenced by the highly successful, completely open source, LAMP server. If you didn’t already know a LAMP server consists of Linux, Apache, Mysql, and PHP/Python/Perl and its a low cost, high performance altenative for hosting your online business. Let’s see how it all goes through time. I believe we will see a steady growth in open source. I believe that 5 years from now the providers of the technology landscape will have changed where open source will have grown out of being a teenager and into full adulthood.
