PCMSpace

Recently, we have seen lot of open source acquisitions by players like IBM, Oracle, Sun etc. These acquisitions has raised questions about the future of open source industry.
Here is my take on it: Any acquisition happens with motive of either reward or out of fear. Reward, when acquiring company thinks that the product can gel well with their existing suit and will bring them long term benefits. And fear, that the product is open source and doing pretty well in market which hinders their own sales and adds insecurity to company.

Is open source product acquisition good for the product?

The only way I can think acquisition will benefit the OS product is backing in financial, infrastructure, resources etc areas. But at what cost? Open source products are driven with young idealists who wants to create alternatives to established techs with their innovative ideas. The ideas for an open source product is all about openness, freedom, innovations to bring best stuff to community all around the world. Are these ideas going to drive the product furture? Will corporate ideas going to be in line with the OSS thinking? — 99% the answer is NO. What will drive the product is how investors/shareholders can make profit out of the product. What the company cares more is their share of profits rather then anything else.

What will happen to developers associated with the product?

If developers strike right deal with the acquiring company, they might continue working with the product. They no more have to worry for ways to make money to keep driving the product. But is that what developers always look for? Isn’t that developers are those *ideal* people who are driven by innovations rather then corporate thinking of money minding? Many of us will definitely look out for different options. And it might end up that those bunch of developers take the source code and start their own from scratch. Who are the losers? We the community, the users and the developers who have to start all over again; invest time in building brand again; find ways to make enough money to support product and one fine day again some big company comes and take over and the cycle continues over and over again.

Will the open source community continue to support the way it has till now ?

Community is one of the biggest asset for any product. Open Source product is mostly driven by users and they are the biggest investors in the product (though not financially ). If acquired product doesn’t grow as per their requirement/road map definitely the users interest will start shifting from the product. Also their saying will not have much impact since the product will now be driven by a bunch of people who are motivated ONLY by money. This scenario might result in two directions: the users will start moving towards some other open source product or they will along with some original developers will start the product again under different roof. For users the preferred scenario will be the second option since they can attract the already existing community and can make use of the most but its again boils down to restarting the whole cycle again as mentioned above. Who are the losers again? Its we, the community.

So what is the best way to move forward where OSS gets backing and continue to grow in *right* direction ??????