Open-source firms seek safety in numbers

[Michael Haney]

On Sun, Dec 26, 2010 at 10:32 PM, Basil Chupin <blchupin at iinet.net.au> wrote:
> Patent disputes concerns force open source firms to band together.
>
> The growing number of patent disputes in the software industry appears to be
> pushing more open-source companies towards a safety-net consortium of
> like-minded software vendors.
>
> Open Invention Network (OIN) describes itself as an intellectual property
> company that was formed to promote Linux by using patents to create a
> collaborative environment.
>
> However, software companies also see it as an insurance policy against legal
> attacks by proprietorial companies such as Microsoft, Oracle and Apple.
>
> Unix desktop company KDE is the latest firm to obtain a license from the
> network and vice president Adriaan de Groot cited the threat from corporate
> lawyers as a reason for joining OIN.
>
> http://www.itnews.com.au/News/242635,open-source-firms-seek-safety-in-numbers.aspx
>

Until either corporate greed or the broken patent system can be
addressed things like this will be necessary.  If I recall, wasn't
there a group established to provide legal assistance to companies
during the whole SCO vs. Linux fiasco?

OIN exists because big corporations don't want to compete fairly.  The
bigger the company the slower and more lumbering it is.  The slower it
is, the slower it innovates, while the smaller a company the faster it
can move and the quicker it can innovate.  The companies that develop
much of the technology that goes into a Linux distro are rather small
and tiny compared to behemoths like Microsoft, Oracle, and even
Google.  Apple is starting to suffer from gigantism, and isn't
innovating as much as it used to.

In the past 10 years since the year 2000, Linux has evolved very
rapidly.  And, its not just Linux but many other OSS projects, and
that evolution is speeding up.  Microsoft cannot keep up with that
pace.  It took them nearly 10 years to develop another operating
system, and it was a flop.  They took a few more years to revamp it
and fix its problems, and finally got it right.  Many Linux distros
evolve at different rates, but mostly they change dramatically every
year, and in some cases every 6 months.  As I said, Microsoft cannot
keep up with that pace, their corporate culture and bureaucracy isn't
geared for it.  Google, as huge as they are, has a corporate culture
that is geared for allowing rapid innovation, and they worked hard to
maintain that swiftness and not become a low lumbering beast like
Microsoft is now.

Either way, its because of this that big corporation don't want to
compete fairly because they can't compete against faster moving,
smaller competitors.  Until the broken patent system is fixed or the
issue of corporate greed is dealt with this will continue to be an
issue and groups like OIN will be necessary.

-- 
Michael "TheZorch" Haney
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