Linux Magazine’s Top 20 Companies to Watch in 2008
Who knows what the future will hold? Well, heaven knows we don’t or we’d have already won the lottery a few times and retired to a private island somewhere. However, we can look at the past to make a few reasonable predictions– such as the companies in the free and open source software community that are going to have a major impact on the market in 2008.
When we say that companies are worth watching in 2008, we don’t necessarily mean that they’re going to be assisting the open source community. (At least not intentionally.) However, Microsoft’s looming presence in the IT world means that its influence will be felt in the open source community.
We’re also watching Microsoft because the company has, finally, taken some tentative steps towards a truce with the open source community. In 2007 Microsoft decided to submit its Microsoft Public License (MsPL) and Microsoft Reciprocal License (MsRL) to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) for approval. If the folks in Redmond wish to remain firmly at odds with the open source community, why approach one of its core institutions for validation?
The company has also thrown its support behind an implementation of its” Silverlight” technology for Linux (called” Moonlight”) which seems uncharacteristic for the company. Perhaps the company has finally come to grips with the fact that Linux and FOSS are here to stay.
No matter what Microsoft’s motives are, we’re sure we’ll be seeing the company in the news a great deal in 2008. Whether that’s a good or bad thing remains to be seen.
(8 votes, average: 3.75 out of 5)
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