[Dclug] The Economist says recession is a boon for FOSS

[Przemek Klosowski]

   > The recession is a boon for Linux & Free Open Source Software, reports The 
   > Economist: http://bit.ly/BEHwr

   Ah. Companies can get the software for free, and not have to pay 
   developers or programmers. Business wins, geeks loose.

There's some partial truth to that but Economist makes a different
argument. The article talks about businesses offering products and
services built upon the FOSS technology. The geeks are still needed,
even more so because more things are possible and it takes expertise
to integrate the components to accomplish them.

Bob Young (the original RedHat CEO) said it nicely: "Our goal is to
decimate the worth of the OS software market". His point was that
there was a monopoly rent; once that's gone, there are lots of things
that are easier to do, thanks to the freedom and cost advantages of FOSS.