Bruce Sterling's sci-fi novel Heavy Weather (1994, about climate-change tornado chasers looking for 'the big one') had a brief bit that struck me then and had s

Bruce Sterling's sci-fi novel Heavy Weather (1994, about climate-change tornado chasers looking for 'the big one') had a brief bit that struck me then and had stuck with me hard: All software is basically free, except groupware, which everyone pays a small monthly per user fee to host & run. It rings so true, is a prediction for that world that has had ever more prescience about where the real world has headed. Service-as-a-Software-Substitute has provided a constant revenue stream for companies that is very desirable, there's no way to pirate a service (well, password sharing sort of...), and software is just far more useful to us when it's connected software, when it's multiplayer. It's been fascinating to watch, and alas sad too, because there are so few common footholds for open-source ethos to get out & really be core to this new world, unless we start asking people to run to servers or succeed in operationalizing p2p as a viable option. Groupware has set a bar for software that we don't have good means to provide or develop for, short of making far off clouds and enterprises to back it.