More Wisdom on Open Source

A recent blog on CNET, Open-Source Software As Guerrilla Marketing Strategy, contains insightful quotes about the advantages of open source. Notable is the expanded horizon of contributors, some of whom end up being hired by the companies that make their software open source. In my recent conversations with champions and overseers of open-source projects at Sun, I heard about that trend, too, as a gratifying outcome.

And this quote on criticism from Marten Mickos, now at the helm of Sun's database group, is enlightening: "You must realize that criticism can be very valuable. Never be defensive. If you can forget about your ego, that's the power of open source." That attitude takes a deliberate effort to build up, I imagine, but certainly sounds like a wise one.