The Digital Economy Runs on Open Source. Here’s How to Protect It | September 2021 | Harvard Business Review
ioi_ab's bookmarks 2022-05-12
Summary:
"Though most people don’t realize it, much of the technology we rely on every day runs on free and open source software (FOSS). Phones, cars, planes, and even many cutting-edge artificial intelligence programs use open-source software such as the Linux kernel operating system, the Apache and Nginx web servers, which run over 60% of the world’s websites, and Kubernetes, which powers cloud computing. The sustainability, stability, and security of these software packages is a major concern to every company that uses them (which is essentially every company). But unlike traditional closed-source software, which companies build internally and sell, FOSS is developed by an unsung army of typically unpaid developers, and is typically given away for free. In the last few years, we have observed an increase in the active role of corporations in open source software, by either assigning employees to contribute to existing open source projects or open sourcing their own code both to allow the community to utilize it and to help maintain it. As companies have made FOSS part of their business model, they have also acquired important FOSS producers. Two years ago, IBM purchased Red Hat, one of the most successful companies built around FOSS for $34 billion. A year before that, other tech giants paid billions to acquire a stake in FOSS, most notably Microsoft (bought GitHub for $7.5 billion) and Salesforce.com (bought MuleSoft for $6.5 billion)...."
By: Hila Lifshitz-Assaf, Frank Nagle