Explaining Open Source's Exponential Growth

On Open Enterprise blog.

Ohloh Opens Up

On Open Enterprise blog.

Some Microsofties See the OSS Light

I don't know whether this is big enough to call a trend yet, but it's striking that several ex-Microsofties are setting up new companies based around open source. The latest one is Ohloh, whose site explains:

We're mapping the open source world by collecting objective information on open source software. Search our site for the most current software metrics and project information on open source software projects.

eWeek has some details on the ex-Microsoft people involved:

Collison and Jason Allen, a former development manager for XML Web Services at Microsoft and now vice president of engineering at Ohloh, co-founded the new company. Other former Microsoft executives involved in the startup include Paul Maritz, who served as a member of the executive committee and manager of the overall Microsoft company from 1986 to 2000. Maritz is an investor in the company, along with Pradeep Singh, who spent nine years at Microsoft in various management positions and left in 1994 to found Aditi Technologies, an Indian outsourcing company, Collison said.

I think one of the reasons for this move from the dark side can be found in another quotation from the same story:

"unlike 1999 one can do a startup on very thin capital, and that is the way we are going about it," Collison said. "One would have to be insane these days to take a traditional Series A round [of venture capital funding] with the open-source software and outsourcing opportunities that are out there."

In other words, it is the open source infrastructure that makes low-cost startups possible; and once you start using open source yourself, you begin to find that it's rather good, and realise that potential customers might think so too....