It was inspiring to learn about the idealistic movers and shakers behind the open source software movement in Revolution OS. Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds, Eric Raymond and others in this movement squarely oppose the proprietary software model, as embodied in Microsoft and its creator, Bill Gates. Free, or open source, software is subject to an intense peer review process, which enables programmers from all over the world to contribute and improve upon the code, and even to adapt it to their own needs, as HCL plans to do with Koha. Proprietary software features a "closed development" modus operandi. No peer review outside the proprietor's limited scrutiny takes place. Instead of pooling the intelligence and resources of the global programming community, the proprietor (most often Microsoft) issues lots of patches and hotfixes rather than improving upon the basic OS code, which remains in its impenetrable black box. Maybe this is why Microsoft VISTA is such a mess.Is Open Source the wave of the future? It looks like we're heading in that direction, and computer users will certainly benefit from this trend.
