nicholas petreley presents an interesting thesis on how the economic “downturn” can help the open source community:
“In the first place, open source is about to get a very big boost because the dot-com economy is tanking. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but open source guru Bruce Perens was right when he recently observed that a slow economy presents the best opportunities for open source. (Please see Resources for more information.) Free software is where you turn when you no longer have money to burn. That’s exactly the position the dot-coms find themselves in right now. The dot-coms aren’t floundering because the opportunities aren’t there. They’re floundering because they got spoiled on the irrational exuberance of investors and didn’t learn how to spend their money wisely. Open source is in a perfect position to benefit from the lessons in frugality that these companies will now have to learn.”
i think ibm is taking notes.