| Major corporate houses choose open source partly | | | | development appeals to the human nature to have |
| due to the economic gains and mainly due to the | | | | control over their destiny. This is true even when |
| control the open source system gives to their hands. | | | | they can get customized 'solutions' by proprietary |
| The quest for control is a serious problem in open | | | | software vendors. The future is in open source, but |
| source arena. The problem sometimes seems trivial, | | | | it is premature to make predictions as to when Linux |
| but is really a loss of manpower by the professionals | | | | or an open source OS cross runs on 50% of the |
| developing programs in open source environment. | | | | computers of the world. |
| The problem is seeking too much of control leads | | | | Incidentally Microsoft Corporation's Shared Source |
| developers develop their own solutions for specific | | | | Program is an effort by the corporate giant to |
| issues. | | | | somehow win the trust of open source community. |
| Reinventing the wheel is quite a common problem in | | | | Though Microsoft allows a peek into the source |
| open source arena. Instead of using an already | | | | code, redistribution rights are neither granted nor |
| popular script, developers tend to write there own | | | | expected. Only an illusion of free handling of source |
| scripts for specific tasks. There may be hundreds of | | | | code, shared source program lacks the democratic |
| scripts with similar functions. There are however | | | | nature of all open source initiatives. |
| instances when a developer has to come up with | | | | Back to open source initiatives - open source |
| something new when the existing system doesn't | | | | initiatives find it quite difficult to get professionally |
| give the expected results. Developing a code from | | | | talented developers to the fold, especially in the |
| scratch will be faster than modifying existing program. | | | | beginning stages. This is true for almost all open |
| Proprietary software, in this sense is quite | | | | source initiative. The situation reverses when there |
| advantageous here. The developers working with | | | | are enough people in the fold and the project takes |
| proprietary software hardly ever goes to coming up | | | | momentum at SourceForge.net. |
| with their own script as a solution for immediate | | | | There is one last thought for major corporations that |
| problems at hand. Then again, proprietary software | | | | have become so stepping on open source shoulders - |
| developers too invent their own wheels, but the goal | | | | spare some of your resources to enrich free |
| is to avoid nasty situations like legal problems. | | | | software and open source software community. |
| The nature of shared development of software | | | | |