Many good arguments have been presented. I just would like to add some different perspectives.

Open Source is not unlike natural resources like the forests or the oceans, "free" and taken for granted. But you all have seen what impact the commercial world has on them, once people figured out some operable business models to make money out of them, even at the irreversible expense of those resources.

Could dot-com craze happen to Open Source? I don't know. But the dot-com craze was certainly made up of many unhappy stories. Total stranger investors not caring anything about what a dot-com companies was doing just wanted to invest and make money out of it.

The problem? Those companies became run by traders, rather than managers. They just wanted to buy and sell companies as commodities, not to manage them. Quite a few companies ended up with shallow, shaky business models. Basically, there's a profound gap between the owners and the workers.

Traders don't always make sound business decision. The long term health of a company and its products is not necessarily among their concerns if they can buy and sell something quick and make money, even if it leaves what's left in ruin. It did happen. Probably still will.

After a long detour, I just hope the dot-com craze won't happen to Open Source, at least not the corrupting influence. Everything free and good need to be actively defended, or someone will take advantage of it for his own good.

In reply to Re: So, Netscape is dead? by chunlou
in thread So, Netscape is dead? by chunlou

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