The open source model of developing software is making a significant impact, not only in the software development and broader high-tech community, but more generally within corporations, other types of businesses and organizations around the world, as Part 1 of this series describes.

In the past ten years Open Source software and its poster child, Linux, has expanded quite remarkably. It has changed from a rebel without a cause to an entity that even the tried and true establishments have sat up and taken notice. Heck, if it is good enough for such mission critical, world changing Wall Street then it is good enough for anything.

Nora Denzel says open-source software is changing the landscape of an industry led by Hewlett-Packard and IBM.

IBM reached an open source milestone recently when it recognized the one-millionth download of its WebSphere Application Server Community Edition. Free to download and use, WAS CE provides a flexible foundation for developing Java applications. Technical support is offered through annual subscriptions.

This is a biased post. Biased towards FREE people using the FREE internet! And certainly against the blogging policies of being neutral, but no harms! Everyone is changing the policies; Microsoft is being altruistic supporting its ultimate rivals – the open source community; and hence changing its policies. If the IT tycoons are changing their policies then why not tiny bloggers!

Abstract Logix is changing the music industry experience for musicians, fans, and retailers. How? By embracing the open source way and using a community-focused and collaborative approach.

"Two Slashdot posts and a long meeting with Microsoft really got me to thinking about whether Microsoft really likes, or doesn’t like, the new GPL version and how its strategy, with regard to open source in general, has been changing over the past few years."

Seneca College students in the School of Computer Studies will work
within the Fedora Project while learning open source development and administration. As the principles and methodologies of open source are changing the software industry, Red Hat and Seneca College are committed to driving change through new models of computer science education.

One of the things that has been a strong point of Open Source Software (OSS) for years, even if it hasn't been held at the forefront of the battle, is the flexibility that OSS offers. This is something I think needs to be said more these days as our world becomes ever more dynamic, requiring software to be ever more flexible in order to keep up with our ever changing lives.