Open source takes center stage

"I can think of only two industries that refer to customers as users. One of them is IT." That particular gem comes from Anne Thomas Manes, research director at The Burton Group, one of the star speakers at last week's SOA Executive Forum in New York. (For those of you who missed the event, we'll be posting many of the presentations online, at SOAExecForum.com later this week.)

Now, Manes is certainly not the first person to note the similarities between tech and the illicit drug trade. In a delicious rant on his Deep End blog, for instance, Senior Contributing Editor Paul Venezia recently noted, "I understand that fleecing business travelers for $10 or so during a flight delay is part of the business model, but even crack dealers give away the first few tastes." Paul was referring to the exorbitant costs of Wi-Fi at airports, but he also railed at the RIAA, broadband providers, and others.

Of course, there are some tech providers who do give you a taste -- and then some: the open source folks. In fact, not only can you try open source software, but you can examine the code, modify it, even share your version with others. If this concept appeals to you, be sure to check out the Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), which begins this Tuesday in San Francisco. With nearly 40 sessions, four conference tracks, 50-plus sponsors, a best-of-breed product demo showcase, and several thousand attendees roaming two floors of the Palace Hotel, OSBC is a gathering place for the open source community's cream of the crop. Online registration has closed, though last-minute attendees can still register on-site starting at 7 a.m. Tuesday.

In addition to producing OSBC, InfoWorld is honoring open source with our continuing Month of Enterprise Startups profiles. We kick off the week with a look at open source storage pioneer Cleversafe, followed on successive days by Hyperic (systems management), MuleSource (ESB/integration platform), and Zenoss (network and system management).

Assuming that whets your appetite for more on the topic, I suggest you dig into Neil McAllister's "How risky is open source?" -- a look at the legally fraught issue of intellectual property in open source. Among other findings, Neil points out that the threat of lawsuits is vastly overstated, because so many vendors are locked into a "mutually assured destruction" detente over patents. Neil used to write InfoWorld's Open Enterprise column, so he brings a real insider's perspective to the discussion. The article is an interesting read; it's also sure to be a helpful resource for users, er … make that customers.