Zack Urlocker
Vice president of products
MySQL

Urlocker: As with most systems software, it needs to continue to get easier to use. MySQL, Apache, PHP, Linux, JBoss, etc., are popular because they are powerful and easy to use. They are far less complex than some of the old proprietary software that was developed in the 1990s. But there's still a ways to go to ensure that all the software works well together with a single, simplified installation.

Open source has made the transition into IT and is being used for very complex systems development. But I think the infrastructure software is still more popular than open source applications. Still, we're seeing the start of that with companies like SugarCRM, JasperSoft, Pentaho, and others.

As we head into a recession with more IT budget crunch, I think we'll see the next wave of open source adoption. If it's good enough for telcos, banks, and the largest Web sites, maybe it's good enough for broader adoption.

Robert Sutor
Vice president of open source and standards
IBM

Sutor: I think the open source community has to focus on the final issues needed to really get broad adoption of Linux on the desktop. This means dealing with device drivers, breadth of applications, look and feel, and usability. To me, this means trying to make the Linux desktop as capable and as friendly as the Mac, rather than trying to emulate Windows, for example. In the same way, I want to see more open source applications be the recognized stars of their product categories and be the first to showcase innovations.

Mark Spencer
Founder and CTO
Digium

Spencer: I see the challenge to be finding and building the right combination of technologies to address the demand for the integration of different software applications and systems such as accounting, reporting, ERP, CRM, etc. Open source is uniquely positioned to allow easy adaptation to address these needs.

Chris DiBona
Open source programs manager
Google

DiBona: I think that open source's biggest challenge is to ignore the current tech climate and continue to create software for its end-users. The tech climate, which I take to mean the mix of commercial and market influences on technology direction, is often shortsighted and selfish. Open source software developers should be influenced only by its developer base first, and its user base second.

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