The Trouble with Open Source Software

Problems have been laid at the open source world's feet since the definition was first created. Indeed the definition came from a desire to create something more "business friendly" than the historical definition of software freedom.  Problems arise when folks stop looking at history and the context in which decisions were made, in essense cease to look at underlying cause-and-effect in the software world. 

This talk will take a tour through the open source software space demonstrating why some problems are software problems not open source problems:

• Security
• Patents
• Copyright taint
• Build discipline
• Re-use

Some are business and economic problems having nothing to do with open source:

• Projects are not products.
• Your community is not a customer.
• There is no open source business model. 

And some are community problems having nothing to do with open source:

• The "community" does not care about your software.
• There is no scale without discipline.
• Freeloaders are essential. 
• There is no tragedy of the commons.