October 3rd, 2008
Blood in the water and open source on the tracks
This is a tough time to be an honest businessman, in any business. (Picture from OpenRemote.org.)
Our own Big Money Matt Asay is feeling the pressure, worrying that Red Hat might be bought out by Oracle Real Soon Now.
It’s true that Oracle’s stock has held up better than Red Hat’s in the last three months. The whole company’s now worth $2.9 billion, a pimple on Oracle’s market cap of $103.9 billion.
Despite this I remain unworried.
It is true that recessions bring consolidation, and fewer choices. In every sector. Two weeks ago my bank accounts were with Wachovia and WaMu. Now they’re with Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase.
But turn, turn, turn. There will be growth in the spring. There will be a spring.
And when that spring begins there will be literally thousands of entrepreneurs, and tens of thousands of coders, ready to deliver new open source solutions of all kinds to a waiting market. Everywhere in the world.
The innovators may not all be in the area of operating systems. They may be strongest in mobile applications, or storage, or security, or games. Even home automation.
Wherever competition has withered or opportunity exists, open source will get there quickly. More quickly than closed source could have.
The sun will come up tomorrow, Matt, even if Sun sets. With open source that sunrise will be faster and more brilliant than what we saw before. I guarantee it.
And if I’m wrong, Matt, you’re a good writer. Have you thought about writing a novel?
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
| 10/03/08
