How Open Source Ate Software: Understand the Open Source Movement and So Much More

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to APress Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2021

G. HaffHow Open Source Ate Softwarehttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6800-1_2

2. From “Free” to “Open Source” to Products

Gordon Haff¹  

(1)

Lancaster, MA, USA

 

We’ve seen how free and open source software not only came onto the scene but became an essential part of the computing landscape. Not just cheaper than proprietary software but a model that encourages the creation of software ecosystems and new innovations.

And this shift from being largely about less expensive software to being about strategically important things gets reflected in how organizations think about open source software today. For example, research conducted by Illuminas and published in ...