Group Actions
Engagement
  • Author Author: spannerspencer
  • Date Created: Date Created
  • Views 1522 views
  • Likes 2 likes
  • Comments 15 comments
Related
Recommended

2016 Year in Preview: The Future of Open Source

spannerspencer

Open Sourceimage

Of all our recent discussions about future tech predictions and how electronics platforms might evolve over the next 12 months., this is perhaps the most semantic.


After all, a platform, board or piece of software is either open source, or it isn't. There's not much in the way of middle ground, so the discussion almost seems void.


However, it's becoming increasingly common to find products and platforms that are mostly open source, but not entirely. Is this the way open source will go? Just keeping enough back for a company to control its own devices, and make it easier to survive the fluctuating markets? Or is that the path to the dark side?


Will Open Source Become More Open, or More Closed?


On a slightly lighter note, perhaps you'll agree with my feelings on open source, that as much as being a description of a platform's accessibility, it's also a social movement.


Some of us have a particular passion for the open source scene, and actively seek out new software and hardware not because it provides a specific function that a project needs, but because it's open source. Is that such a bad thing?


And let's say I want to join the open source scene, what's my next move? How can the scene grow and evolve and continue to encourage developers and creators to join its ranks when launching new software and hardware? What's next for open source?


Tell us all about the future of Open Source below (and what you'd like to see, as much as what we will see), and we'll reconvene this time next year to see how close we got to the mark.

Parents

  • This is a minefield of conspiracy theory and conjecture. The open source community has always been under attack by the mainstream. The age old question, "why do you put forth such a great effort if you never intend to get paid for it?" is the drone since the early days of GNU and the spawn of Linux. Major businesses are always talking down open source with the comment "if it breaks, who is going to support it?"  So what happens then?  When the initial developers get tired of the fight, or decide they have a need for a chunk of money, they relinquish their creation to another, who does not always have the same altruistic ideals.

     

    The history of MySQL is the classic for this. What was once free and run under the GNU licensing, is now available for a minimal support fee. Xenix tried to sue Linux for encroachment until they discovered the Linux community had extracted the component, repaired it, and replaced it in their archive, under license. Microsoft has finally backed off much of their "crush, kill, destroy" tactics, and decided to open the source for a significant portion of Windows OS. Maybe because they lost their Monopoly case and ran out of appeals.

     

    I have said before, innovation does not come from mainstream.  Technical leaps come from the hobby community, always! The reason is you can't have any major progress without incurring risk, and major industry does everything it can to reduce risk, so it becomes self defeating. With little exception.

  • in reply to jack.chaney56

    I think it comes down to cynicism.

     

    The idea that anyone would do quality work for no payment immediately makes people suspicious.

     

    While it is possible for people to do good deeds without rewards, few people ever experience one, hence the distrust.

     

    DAB

Comment Children
  • in reply to DAB

    Well said. Thank you!

     

    I do wish to make it clear, that I am a strong proponent of open source, and all it stands for.  I have been Microsoft intolerant for a very long time; since my first experience with the first Windows Development Kit, spending full price (around $5000USD) and finding out later there were some high speed, proprietary calls, that Microsoft applications were using, that weren't available to other users. The bad taste still has not gone away.  I am a Linux user since I got my first release of v0.95, and before Red Hat and most of the other major distributions. I tend to build Linux From Scratch (LFS) for most of my systems around the house, and only use Microsoft products when work demands it.

     

    Then along comes Raspberry Pi, and the new B2 (or is that 2 B), and my life becomes good once again. Open source hardware (I'm sure there is an asterisk there), running open source software... it doesn't get any better than that!  As long as PIs are available, I really don't see myself buying another "PC" for a very long time.

     

    OK, time to get down from my soapbox now,

     

    Jack