Free Open Source Software has been there since time immemorial. It has grown in use as more and more people make use of it. Many corporations have liked the use of it because of the free nature and the reliability it comes with it. It is also possible to customize and make it to do any type of work. Unlike Microsoft and all other propriety products, it is not prone to crashes. It has a large collection of people and companies who are bringing together their effort to develop it so that it gets improved. This is the reason why the business community has taken this technology so enthusiastically.
Unlike the predictions that were made before that the software would not live to see the light of software business, the open source community continue to gain more popularity by the day, many people prefer using the software as it is free and the it is being improved each day. Many people have thrown in their effort to contribute to the thrive of open source software (Fogel, 2006).
One of the dire consequences that were predicted for FOSS is that they would be sued by giant companies like Microsoft and Apple and they would so diminish in oblivion. This is no longer the case as many people have rallied behind the open source community and thwarted all the efforts by these giants to bring down the open source software. The legal accusations that have been filed by Microsoft have been found to be baseless. For this reason, there is no obstacle that can be seen to be standing on the way of the prospering of the open source software. This means that the software companies who are behind this will continue prospering (Reijswoud, 2008).
Although there have been campaigns to discredit the open source community, there are many changes that have been seen in the propriety world. There have been changes with regard to companies like Microsoft. The bickering has been reduced. These events have been seen to bring more friendliness with eth use of propriety software. There have been changes in approach towards the rolling out of new applications. These events have made the open source community to be known the more. There are many people who have been reached and thus awareness of the open source software has been realized.
The open source community has not been hurt from the actions seen in the fight. In any case, there has been increase in the use of the open source software. This has led to the increase in popularity and the open source community has been seen to increase. Ironically, the fight has made many users to be as united than ever to bring the cost of software to reasonable levels. The open source community has received immense help from the events. With every desktop computer that is being bought by individuals, there is Ubuntu installed in them. This has been due to the fact that the campaign has been intensified (Feller, 2005).
The actions of Microsoft against FOSS community are that they have shifted their fight and instead tried to make friendships with standardization bodies like W3 and ISO. This has been seen to be different from the past where they have been leveling legal attacks from the open source community. Another irony is that Microsoft has started creating their own FOSS software, although not at the degree of the FOSS community. They are no longer aggressive on pursuing the legal attacks they were waving against the FOSS community that they had violated many rights as much as their software is concerned.
References
Feller, J. (2005). Perspectives on free and open source software. Massachusetts: MIT Press.
Fogel, K. (2006). Producing open source software: How to run a successful free software project. NY: O’Reily Media Inc.
Reijswoud, V. (2008). Free and open source software for development: Exploring expectations, achievements and the future. NY: Polimetrica.
