Open source

So there is this practice where software is free, the source code is readily available, and companies can make money on services, training and consulting rather than licenses on the software itself. I have mixed feelings about open source software. I don’t have a problem with proprietary software. It seems ok to me that some company would invest to develop a product, and would enjoy the income from licenses. At the office, my colleagues say that whether you like it or not, open source software is upon us. Maybe. They say that whatever software a company can develop, it will be replicated in short order by an online community of open source developers. Maybe not. It might be non-trivial to roll out really difficult software, like optimized linear programming solvers, for example. Probably open source software has been made possible by the fact that writing and distributing software might not be as capital intensive as producing cars, for example, which requires plants, machines and other capital items. Maybe it’ll spark a new kind of economy. But it’s not obvious to me that software should automatically be free, whether like free speech or free beers.