Open source is just the best thing since sliced bread! I know that I am stating the obvious, but I have some time today and am in a bit of a writting mood.
You want to put up a website? No problem, only things you will have to pay for: internet connectivity and some webserver hardware. Most of us already have broadband connection at home and a PC. You are in business, EVERYTHING else you need to get a website running can be had for free. Unbelievable?
How many of us give second thought to how webservers, online shopping carts etc work? We just take these things for granted. Behind the scenes most of the web runs on software contributed freely by thousands of people.
You want to do some word processing or a spread sheet or maybe a presentation? Just grab OpenOffice for free.
Some quick examples of open source software that I use daily:
Linux – a while back it was a bit too obscure for most mortals to use, but now it is as easy (maybe even easier) to install and use as Windows. You can have a few different flavours. All free.
Apache – the most popular webserver software. Free.
PHP – a flexible and powerful scripting language. Free.
MySQL – powerful database. Free.
OpenOffice – who needs MS Office? Most don’t ever use half the gimmics MS Office has. OpenOffice can read/import MS Office as well! Free.
Eclipse/Notepad++ – (and many more) great software development tools. Free.
Subversion/TortoiseSVN – a version control system. Free.
The list could go on, but the point is that right now there is a huge wealth of freely available software thanks to he millions of man hours freely contributed by so many people.
So a big thanks to all of them! Maybe soon even beer will be free 
July 9th, 2009 at 14:53
Nothing wrong with being technology agnostic
But some don’t care too much about the costs.. Java was the only open-source technology used by top-tier investment banks, aaaaaaaall of this being replaced by .NET. They are to that extent impatient and ‘new microsoft technology’driven: they work on beta versions of Silverlight (!???) – hearty confidence, which is probably the very opposite to open-source. Plus web services to handle the legacy code.
July 12th, 2009 at 13:55
A conference next week in London: http://skillsmatter.com/event/open-source-dot-net/open-source-dot-net-exchange-iii
A good example of using open-source in .NET…! These guys are using the non-mainstream code to perform e.g. tests on .NET apps (last month a guy was using the open-source WATiR language to run the tests), because it’s smarter, because it’s more flexible…! Many Boeing pilots are ex F-16 pilots, Boeing is where the big money is, F-16 is like sitting in a not-so-posh cockpit without the autopilot, but you can tweak the code…!
Schedule:
Members of the ALT.NET community will talk about their favourite alternative .NET tools that increase programmer productivity and help us do our work better.
1. A FIRST LOOK A BOO
2. MANAGING WEBSITES WITH WEB PLATFORM INSTALLER AND MSDEPLOY
3. Spark – view engine for the ASP.Net MVC
4. ACCEPTANCE TESTING WITH CONCORDION .NET
5. WHAT OPENRASTA DOES OTHER FRAMEWORKS CAN’T
6. F# UNITS OF MEASURE
July 14th, 2009 at 09:30
Open source is not all about cost. The freedom to inspect and change the source code is is good for quality. Extreme code review you might call it.
However, it is the low (or zero) cost of using and experimenting with open source that IMHO is what really gave the web such momentum.
I think open source encourages entrepreneurship. People can experiment with technology driven business ideas without having to have funding and/or precise traditional business plans in place. This keeps the cost of failure low and makes for a steady supply of up and coming innovation.