Four challenges of open source software in 2017
By 2017, open source software will be more popular in the new year than ever before. Admittedly, open source has developed by leaps and bounds in a relatively short period of time. In January 2007, only a few large companies invested heavily in open source, and closed source software vendors such as Microsoft and VMware led the enterprise computing market. Ten years later, open source software is ubiquitous, and more than two-thirds of companies contribute to open source. Open source technologies such as OpenStack, docker and KVM are used to build the next generation infrastructure. But the open source community is also facing a series of new challenges. Open source programmers and companies need to think about how to thrive in 2017.
Open source is the biggest challenge
Cloud computing. Now the company is promoting the migration to the cloud. According to sources, cloud computing is expected to continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 19.4% in the future. This is good news for open source technology. However, this is bad news for those who believe that open source (or free software) should be the main purpose of free users. Even if the cloud is driven by open source code.
Internet of Things (IOT). The challenges of IoT are similar to open source cloud computing. Many network devices, such as intelligent thermostats, are partially powered by open source technology. However, this does not mean that the user has anything, because the user usually does not have the ability to modify the code running on the device, which is usually not recorded, because they lack interfaces that are easy to modify and rely on proprietary components.
Apple. The open source community has won a long battle with Microsoft. However, Apple still quite dislikes open source (ironically, considering that the MacOS part is built on the open source code of BSD). Of course, Apple has also released some open source code. But most of Apple's products and platforms are super exclusive and closed. Apple, as a very successful closed source software company, open source will face fierce competition in the consumer market.
Corporate control. In the past, most open source code was written by volunteers. Today, most project code contributions, such as Linux and OpenStack, come from programmers such as Red Hat and Intel. In fact, it is a good thing that companies invest so much money in open source development. But this change does reflect that the company's open source control code is much higher. As a result, the open source community must learn to respond.
There is no doubt that open source software will continue to flourish in this new year. However, as open source enters a new field, the open source landscape is changing, and the open source community must adapt.
