Open source moves at a different speed to commercial software. This has become apparent over the last decade as Linux and its Open Source fellow travelers (Apache, Open Office, MySQL, Firefox et al) gradually established their position in the software world.

In our industry the market dominant players often have the worst products, but that’s pretty clearly not true for the Apache Foundation. The core Apache servers power the web: combining dominant market share with dominant performance and stunning software reliability - and because that combination is unusual, we have to ask why and how?

Anyone following the open source phenomenon can’t help but be amazed at what appears to be volunteerism on a massive scale for corporate gain. Almost every company in the world has some strands of open source code floating around their company.

Whether for private users, small and midsize businesses, major corporations, or public institutions, Open Source software has in the past years become a reliable alternative to commercial solutions. And not just because it is less expensive. Businesses are becoming increasingly convinced of the quality of this free software.

These days we can assume that most large enterprises have some sort of open source software presence in the data center. Whether it is racks full of Linux servers, a few contrasting Linux instances, or even just Apache running on Windows, open source is prevalent.

Besides the apparent commercial benefits of adapting open source approach, technology developers also appreciate the possibility of altering the software to suit their architecture

On February 9, 1998, I published the Open Source Definition and the public announcement of the Open Source Initiative that Eric Raymond and I were starting. This was the first time that the general public heard what Open Source was about. Friday, February 8 is the last day of Decade Zero of Open Source. Saturday, February 9 is the anniversary of Open Source and the start of Decade One. It's a computer scientist thing. We always start counting from zero :-)

According to a post on the MySQL blog site last night, by MySQL's Vice President for Community Kaj Arno, Sun Microsystems plans to purchase MySQL AB, the commercial firm selling enterprise database products built atop the ubiquitous open source database which represents the M in the LAMP open source software stack.

Open source software has a lot to offer the business world. Aside from the fact that they’re generally free, many open source programs are more secure, reliable and customizable than their proprietary counterparts. In fact, many large companies, including big names like Amazon, Google, and Yahoo, run their servers with Linux rather than Windows.