Opinion: Is open source a bubble ready to burst?:
Some fear the spike in open source investment is a sign that it might be a bubble about to burst; others say it backs up the model’s fundamental viability
Do people really still think that open Source is not a viable business model? People make money from Open Source, more so now than ever in the history of computing. The Open Source business model, under a good business administrator, can make money. I think what people tend to forget is that any business can fail if not tended to properly and if led by a weak and/or wavering administrator. The fact that more people are investing in and participating in businesses guided by Open Source ideals means that more people will fail and more people will lose money in the process. Just pure numbers, not the bursting of a bubble.
Whether it’s a ‘bubble’ commercially or not is irrelevant – many of the best open source applications e.g. Firefox, the GIMP etc. are not made by corporations, so a sudden drop in commercial viability will not make a great amount of difference.
I think the concern is that Open Source might become too popular, and there might come a day when everyone will say, “hey, did you hear about this ‘open source’ stuff? It’s the next big thing! Let’s invest in some shaky start up and get rich!” I think we might be getting there, and when we do, it’s risky, because investing becomes catastrophic when the product fails.
Open source is not the false economy it once wasn’t. It’s a balance value share investment that adds to the net balance sheet of it’s worth. Corporations often take share index options and balance them directly on the shares market whereas Open source has a much sharper investment trend behemoth that will eventually eat it’s own economy.
Opensource will always have its place in the software community. Often its the opensource developers that change the way things are done in the world – then comes M$oft with their reply.
Open source will only grow more popular in my opinion.