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The current biggest threat to Free and Open Source software is cloud computing. Plain and simple.[0] I know this is a blunt and harsh statement to make, but wh

The current biggest threat to Free and Open Source software is cloud computing. Plain and simple.[0] I know this is a blunt and harsh statement to make, but when you sell a service, you have zero native incentives to Open Source the way your system works. It just opens up Competition. This is not unique to AWS/Amazon. But their success gives them the power to have wide OSS damage. This is, to me, the biggest reason why cloud portability should be something that every customer of a cloud service should have in their plans. Amazon as a company has shown no timidness in both "embracing, extending, extinguishing" their competition. OSS literally built the internet and opened up the wold wild communication age, let's not be so short sighted that we don't see proliferation of cloud services ( specifically one having so much dominance), for what it really is. [0] http://dtrace.org/blogs/bmc/2018/12/14/open-source-confronts-its-midlife-crisis/ http://dtrace.org/blogs/bmc/2018/12/14/open-source-confronts...

SilasX 8y ago
Cloud computing was arguably an outgrowth of inability to prevent piracy and everyone being encouraged to open source everything.
- keepper 8y ago
  No, it was an outgrowth of infrastructure work being a niche trade, and capacity management by startups ( and mature companies), being a hard task. This point is well known, and pretty much in every cloud providers marketing material.
  - SilasX 8y ago
    So, even though it's impossible to prevent piracy, effectively forcing you to hide the code behind an internet API, the real reason to do so is something else, as proven by marketing literature? If I could re-engineer MongoDB so that a monkey could administer, you'd recommend I still use the cloud model rather than sell binaries?
cthalupa 8y ago
This comment is pretty bizarre when taken into account with the link you referenced. Unless I'm completely misreading what Cantrill is saying in that blog, I don't think he agrees with you. >And while they’re at it, it would be great if they could please stop making outlandish threats about the demise of open source >Adam’s fundamental optimism serves to remind us, too, that any perceived “danger” to open source is overblown: open source is going to endure >and in the end, open source will survive its midlife questioning just as people in midlife get through theirs: by returning to its core values and by finding rejuvenation in its communities

SilasX 8y ago

Cloud computing was arguably an outgrowth of inability to prevent piracy and everyone being encouraged to open source everything.

keepper 8y ago
No, it was an outgrowth of infrastructure work being a niche trade, and capacity management by startups ( and mature companies), being a hard task. This point is well known, and pretty much in every cloud providers marketing material.
- SilasX 8y ago
  So, even though it's impossible to prevent piracy, effectively forcing you to hide the code behind an internet API, the real reason to do so is something else, as proven by marketing literature? If I could re-engineer MongoDB so that a monkey could administer, you'd recommend I still use the cloud model rather than sell binaries?

cthalupa 8y ago

This comment is pretty bizarre when taken into account with the link you referenced. Unless I'm completely misreading what Cantrill is saying in that blog, I don't think he agrees with you. >And while they’re at it, it would be great if they could please stop making outlandish threats about the demise of open source >Adam’s fundamental optimism serves to remind us, too, that any perceived “danger” to open source is overblown: open source is going to endure >and in the end, open source will survive its midlife questioning just as people in midlife get through theirs: by returning to its core values and by finding rejuvenation in its communities