Is open source just a fad?
According to the tech blog HardOCP, some projects aren't as healthy as their popularity indicates. Here's the post. Apparently OpenOffice only has 24 active developers working on it. When you consider how many apps are included in that package and how frequently it's updated, that's not many at all. In some ways this should probably be expected: It's hard to get people to work on something that doesn't have a traditional revenue stream. While OpenOffice is backed by Sun, many open source projects don't enjoy regular funding or are maintained by volunteers. The products are solid enough to make the commercial equivalents work for their money. But in the long run, might that be a bad thing? If open source squeezes the market, especially where small developers are concerned, but then proves unviable, could it lead to stagnation?
According to the tech blog HardOCP, some projects aren't as healthy as their popularity indicates. Here's the post. Apparently OpenOffice only has 24 active developers working on it. When you consider how many apps are included in that package and how frequently it's updated, that's not many at all. In some ways this should probably be expected: It's hard to get people to work on something that doesn't have a traditional revenue stream. While OpenOffice is backed by Sun, many open source projects don't enjoy regular funding or are maintained by volunteers. The products are solid enough to make the commercial equivalents work for their money. But in the long run, might that be a bad thing? If open source squeezes the market, especially where small developers are concerned, but then proves unviable, could it lead to stagnation?
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