Open source use as a market differenciator. v0.1 author totierne


"Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I could lift the world." -- Archimedes

The world is moving to open source, and the balance will be more open source than there is now, how do we as individuals move the pivot to promote ever more open source, with proprietory niche software where the market requires?

Levers of today include what you read, where you work, what you buy, who you sell to, who you evangelise to, who you ignore, who you vote for and even which countries you visit. To use these levers for the greater good requires information. There is gnu and the GPL, and large initiatives such as linux and apache, but to get full advantages of peoples levers there should be a more determined attempt to use open source 'brand'  to reward in a systematic economic [free market... capitalist even] way. For example to run most businesses 100% open source may be difficult but a business that makes an effort and takes the hit of limiting itself to open source should be rewarded by others, even if it just alleviates some of the markets guilt for not being able to go as far themselves immediately, it will be in their advantage in proping up the bleeding edge companies as it makes their future open source moves easier. Giving open source use as the market differenciator between contracts, votes and purchases, should encourage open source evangelism by those who are using the most open source, and encourage those lagging behind to catch up.

100% [A receding goal never reached]
90% gnu
80% apache
70% debian redhat mandrake
60% [linux as desktop][Significant open source or preferably GPL software releases] IBM
50% [linux supported product range] Oracle, Sun
40% [linux as department/company webserver]
30% [linux access from the desktop by vnc viewer]
20% [cygwin installable on PCs]
10% Microsoft
0%

I do not know whether Democrat or Republican is more open source friendly. Having a comprehensive evaluation of competitors open source friendly attitude might require some work. Maybe just a short standard list of questions to differenciate on an open source basis would be enough.

Does this idea have merit?

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