BeOS is a good example why if you're already big you can be proprietary but if you're small it's better to release as open source (when there are big players in

BeOS is a good example why if you're already big you can be proprietary but if you're small it's better to release as open source (when there are big players in the market.) If BeOS had simply released its source early on it might still be very much alive and healthy today. Given that it achieved on the desktop what Linux still has not, it might have bested Linux in at least the desktop arena. It's main mistake was trying to make it in the proprietary OS market, up against both Microsoft and Apple. Certainly after Apple had failed to buy BeOS, their next best bet was transform BeOS into a GPL or BSD-licensed project. Now, we have Haiku OS, but it is a bit late, and can only ever be an approximation of the original experience / API.