Open source youth movement

Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik has a known bias. During an interview with Mark Anderson at the Future in Review conference, Szulik said that open source is creating calamity and having corrosive effects on the existing incumbent proprietary software vendors with large installed bases of users. There is evidence (Red Hat, Firefox, etc.) to support the notion that open source is impacting the establishment, but it's not exactly corrosive or calamitious. Some users want control and access to source code to modify and improve it without storm troopers breaking in and throwing them into jail, Szulik said.  That's a typical polarized view of open source versus proprietary software, which are increasingly bedfellows--enterprises are deploying hybrid solutions that mix proprietary and open source components.

Szulik expects that a youth movement will expand the reach and popularity of open source. "You can't discount the power of demographic activity....the reality is that at a very young age, depending on their interests, [kids] can download any open source project, so they are developing a set of capabilities and competencies based on open source software. The model of user-based innovations is no longer an oddball idea," Szulik said. An open source youth movement, especially outside the U.S. where open source is more popular, will have an major impact over the next decade as they age into the workplace with their preferences and coding skills. Tools like Grasshopper will make it easier for Windows developers to create components for Linux. But just because a kid cuts his or her programming teeth on open source code doesn't mean they will be forever wedded to the concept of "free" software. Open source business models and licenses, as well as models for proprietary software, will continue to evolve. What's more clear is that software as a service is going to continue to gain traction, and enterprises will be less concerned whether it's proprietary or open source  or hybrid code underneath. It's about what works best at what price to solve a particular problem...