The trouble with Open Source?

They present and interesting argument here. And I do see some of the points being made as valid. But to say that there is a lack of leadership leads me to believe that they are totally missing the point behind the OSS concept.

From its humble origins in the ‘hacker’ culture of US computer science laboratories in the 1970s, open source software (OSS) has grown to become arguably the most influential and talked about phenomenon to hit the computer industry since the invention of the microprocessor. At the heart of OSS is a wonderful idealistic notion that appeals to our caring, sharing side. The OSS vision is of a world in which there are no greedy corporations run by megalomaniac billionaires intent on screwing users out of their hard-earned cash in return for bloated, unstable, insecure software which only operates properly with other products from the same manufacturer and has laughable customer support. Instead, there are communities of gentle, altruistic individuals working together voluntarily for the good of mankind. Unsullied by the sordid world of commerce, the code that they produce is somehow purer and more ethical than proprietary software.

This utopian vision of technology is championed by high-profile pressure groups such as the Free Software Foundation and embraced by cyber-liberties groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation. However, OSS would not have become the powerful force that it is today without also having wider appeal. As well as beard-and-sandals types, OSS also appeals to a deep-seated fear within many hard-nosed IT managers in organizations whose reliance on a particular software product may be critical to their business. Such organizations tend to have major concerns over the risk of inadequate or diminishing support for the product, either through product obsolescence or if the vendor goes bust. [Read the rest]