There was some interesting discussion following my post last week asking whether there is a growing rift between commercial open source software vendors and some aspects of the open source user community.

Asay had an interesting answer that he volunteered as a concept later in the call (fat lot of value I added). He suggested that in a future licensing scheme, companies that employ open source code internally could elect to contribute cash instead of open code

Last week, Mary Jo Foley offered commentary on Microsoft's open source software strategy with respect to independent software vendors based on an interview with Microsoft's Sam Ramji. Matt Asay provides good colour commentary on his blog. Each post focuses on the trustworthiness and competitive history of the company. Let's look at things from a different perspective.

This week theme has been "who's going to pay for open source?" It's shown up in a number of blogs, like Matt Asay's.

Matt Asay set the cat amongst the pigeons late last week with his post declaring that “Free software has lost. Open source has won." To my mind, there is actually a lot to agree with in Matt’s post but where it falls down is in its generalisation of the Free Software movement.

"Savio Rodrigues has published an interesting post about the adoption of commercial open source software that brings together his thoughts about open source business models and suggests that commercial open source vendors may be heading for a glass ceiling.

This post from Matt Asay on whether open source needs consolidation asks an interesting question, and some of the comments that came in on it were interesting. This comment caught my eye: "No. Open source does not need consolidation. Open source needs product managers."

One of the challenges open source companies have is that you serve two distinct markets: your customers as well as non-paying community users. Paradoxically, the non-paying users can be the most vocal and demanding.

The open source movement remains a font of innovation to this day, and not just in the commercial sector. Numerous projects founded by universities, loosely knit communities, and individuals are exploring areas yet to be taken on by mainstream, proprietary software products.