I’ve talked in the past about a number of “open source” business models. There’s the MySQL “dual license” model, where all the software is available under an open license but a proprietary license can be purchased.

Microsoft has been wanting to get cozy lately with open source developers but a top IBM executive warns that the world's largest software maker is not ready to give up full control yet.

For years, the poster child of the anti-open source movement was Microsoft, with its proprietary software model. In recent years, however, the company has changed its views, starting an open source software lab to work on interoperability issues.

Microsoft's detente with the open-source world is growing stronger by the minute. Steve Ballmer said today that he wouldn't consider an open-source-based business model a deterrent to buying a company Microsoft found interesting.

Does the Open Source Model work better than its commercial alternative? This post comes on the heels of one of my fellow Staff Writer's posting the story, "A Modest Idea: What If Microsoft Open Sourced Windows?" And I'm aiming this commentary at Microsoft too but it applies to any company who seeks profit over what is fundamentally correct behavior in the marketplace.

A lot of bandwidth has been wasted arguing over the lack of usability in open-source software/free software (henceforth “OSS”). The debate continues at this moment on blogs, forums, and Slashdot comment threads.

One of the most surprising things about Microsoft's bid for Yahoo is that if successful it will make Microsoft one of the two or three largest users of open source software in the world. Google is certainly the largest. The National Security Agency may or may not be second (only the spooks know for sure), but if it is then by my estimate that would make Yahoo the third.

The basic idea behind open source, a fledging model employed in the software industry, is very simple : When programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software evolves.

What do you see as the biggest danger to open-source software today? On the one hand, there's still a locus of resistance. Microsoft still maintains strongly the view that its business model, which depends upon concealing source code from users, is a viable and important and indeed necessary model.