Happy Independence day to my US readers. This holiday is a celebration of the United States adoption of the Declaration of Independence which declared independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. I thought it would be a good day to remind everyone what open source is all about…

Now, a wave of homegrown programmers, developers and software makers claim to be heralding a new era of African independence.

The importance of technological independence is demonstrated by Microsoft's latest nationalist move

A look at Microsoft's contact with the EU, which was under internal probe again

Infosys helps Microsoft fight against the interests of the Indian people, but both companies are suffering together from an unstoppable power shift (from colonisation to freedom and independence)

The fight against DRM often pits us against some of the biggest companies and the most dominant ways of thinking in the technology business. What gives us the independence to speak out -- and the power to make your voice heard --is the support of our members. Now, we need your help to keep Defective by Design strong in 2013.

Aside from the ongoing adoption of open source, one of the trends that has defined FOSS in 2009 has been the numerous declarations that the war between open source and proprietary software is over - and moreover that open source has won.

"In the fall of 2005, in my home state of Massachusetts, Peter Quinn, the CIO of the Commonwealth, endorsed a plan to require the state government to use the Open Document Format for storing government records."

It has been amusing this Independence Day reading reaction to Microsoft’s Equipt announcement. The reaction has ranged from hope to anger, depending on the author’s attitude toward Microsoft. Rather than play either note I’d like to focus on the business model and the opportunities it offers open source.