I’m a big fan of open source. With Vista’s launch looming in 2007 I expect either a large monetary windfall for MS or a large exodus of its customers. Vista is stacking up to be the next ME. Those in the know have already heard of the Microsoft-Novell patent deal (or non-aggression pact as I’d like to look at it); perhaps it’s an attempt to help stave off the exodus. In any case, Linux et al. have certainly generated enough mind space that they’re a viable threat (though I expect Apple to steal more market share unless Linux gets its act together). Personally, I’m not looking to spend more money on an OS that is priced more than the hardware it runs on. And I’m always pressing my bosses to move away from closed-source software where it makes sense. I’m not against closed source software because I don’t mind paying for products. However, when open source software meets or exceeds the capabilities of it’s closed source counterpart, it doesn’t make economic sense to continue paying for the closed source version. You’re better off donating a portion of what you would have paid to the open source developers. (What I am against are proprietary standards and software patents, but that’s a whole other topic.)
The crux of the issue comes down to control—control of your information and ultimately your dollar. Open source puts the control back into your hands. My first encounter with this is the fact that my Compaq Presario has a blacklisted DSDT which prevents ACPI from loading. Xubuntu being an open source Linux distribution gives me the capability to fix the problem. (Whether I succeed or not, we’ll see.) Granted ACPI “worked” under Windows, but I’ve come to find out that Windows simply ignored any problems with DSDTs. (Kinda reminds me of IE quirks mode.) Then there’s the fact that a small nation could not convince MS to produce a localized version of Windows because it would not have been profitable. So the nation decided to create it’s own localized Linux distribution. Control of information isn’t limited to just software either. I mean it’s only just recently people were able to keep their cell phone numbers when transferring services. Yet, even now, mobile service providers lock your phones to their networks and have custom firmware installed on phones to remove/limit features to the point you have to go through them to get any data onto the phone. As much as I covet the price-performance of Sony products, I do not admire them for continuing to try to force proprietary standards on their consumers. Which brings me to the coolest thing about the open source movement—open source hardware.
One of the first, soon-to-be commercially available products will be an open source 3D graphics card. Open source OSes are currently forced to reverse engineer drivers for graphics cards because the big-3 a) do not want to release critical information about the cards to driver software developers and b) the closed-source drivers they do develop are not on par with their Windows counterparts.
Trolltech has already released the Greenphone. It’s not quite open source hardware, but it is a Linux-based phone. Much in the same way that the firmware for some Linksys routers are modifiable which resulted in a better product (though not necessarily supported by the company).
A more ambitious project is the open source car. There appear to be two groups spearheading this project, OSCar and the OSGV. Neither has anything really tangible at the moment, but the idea isn’t all that far fetched. Semi-custom cars could become a niche business. Auto manufacturers are nothing more than assemblers. Most parts are contracted out to third parties anyway. Imagine being able to get the features you want without getting additional features included with a package.
One that I predict to be a success story is the Prius PHEV conversion kit. Though not quite an open source car it is still an open source project. The project details how to convert a Prius to run in an all-electric mode and to be able to charge the batteries from an outlet instead of the gasoline engine. You’ll eventually be able to do this as a DIY project or have it done at a conversion center.
I hope the trend continues.
(Added January 9, 2007) Fab@Home is an open source project detailing how to create a $2,400 3D printer for rapid prototyping.
(Added March 30, 2007) Engadget announces an open source car called the c,mm,n. It’s no Tesla.