Forging the future with open source

NetworkWorld nails it with an article describing how proprietary licensing encourages companies to spend time protecting their past investments, rather than focusing on the future. While the article deals with Microsoft's ongoing legal battles with Novell over WordPerfect (Remember that?), the principle is broadly applicable: Software vendors and their customers are better served when vendors concentrate on the Next Big Thing rather than protecting their aging (or even dead) technological turf. Let's hope that open source software licensing makes that happen. How does open source apply? Open source, after all, doesn't change a company's desires to protect its intellectual property. It does, however, significantly change what "protecting intellectual property" means, and it dramatically changes how open-source vendors get paid... [read full story]