Open source is not for winners!

It's debated that open source development promotes innovation through incremental changes made by unassociated parties. Undoubtedly, open source style development makes it easier to reuse existing software platforms. But looking back at decades of software development, it's clear that companies which lose in the competition brace for open source development.

Microsoft ,which has 90% share in desktop operating systems, does not support open source operating system development. Whereas, sun, IBM and others who lost out in the race embraced Linux, an open source operating system.

Google which obviously owns major share of search market is not willing to open up it's search algorithm and it's web infrastructure. Google would lose it's competitive advantage if it were to open up it's search algorithm. However, Microsoft, yahoo and others who lost out in web search industry are contemplating on open source search engine development. It's noteworthy that Google is a strong contributor to many other open source projects.

Adobe, which also promotes and funds open source development, is not willing to open up Flash where as it would love to see IE being open sourced.

It's about time people stop bashing Microsoft for not embracing open source. They were ahead in the race and made tons of money. There is no reason for them to open up operating system development.

I wonder why opening up of knowledge was never discussed in other industries. Would the people who are pro-open-source also ask for

- Boeing to open up the aircraft development and tell people how they make each and every part and how planes are assembled?
- Starbucks to open up their recipes
- GE to reveal specifications of their electronics
- GM to disclose how engines are manufactured

They would not!!! What happened to all these democrats?

Capitalism strives through small incremental improvements. Improvements by independent parties are easier if knowledge is not proprietary. However, the very nature of capitalism promotes proprietorship and ownership. Hence, open source development undermines capitalism. Anyone who supports free markets and capitalism should out rightly reject open source!