The trouble with open source

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From its humble origins in the ‘hacker’ culture of US computer science laboratories in the 1970s, open source software (OSS) has grown to become arguably the most influential and talked about phenomenon to hit the computer industry since the invention of the microprocessor. At the heart of OSS is a wonderful idealistic notion that appeals to our caring, sharing side. The OSS vision is of a world in which there are no greedy corporations run by megalomaniac billionaires intent on screwing users out of their hard-earned cash in return for bloated, unstable, insecure software which only operates properly with other products from the same manufacturer and has laughable customer support. Instead, there are communities of gentle, altruistic individuals working together voluntarily for the good of mankind. Unsullied by the sordid world of commerce, the code that they produce is somehow purer and more ethical than proprietary software.

Link: bcs.org

Category:

  • Open Source