"The problem with the tech media (conventional media and tech blogosphere) is that they are way too deep into proprietary software and hit based economic models. This has resulted in way too many misinterpretations about open source."

Anyone who still thinks open source isn't ready for prime time hasn't been paying attention. Two events this week demonstrate how open source principles have put an entertainment juggernaut and a sports franchise at the top of their respective games.

The Times of India, a respectable publication, has just published an article with the headline: “MS says it won open source war.” This refers only to the OOXML fiasco. So, what on earth is “open source” here (mind another hijack of this term) and what makes this a win, let alone a “war”?

FOSSBazaar recently highlighted Evangelia Berdou's doctoral thesis on the differences between the contributions of paid open source developers and volunteer contributors.

At the Utah Open Source Conference yesterday I presented a dilemma. Briefly, the idea is that as open-source buyers grow comfortable with open source they will stop spending money on open source. This leads to tragedy of the commons-type problems and a difficulty in encouraging the creation of more open source.

SINGAPORE--Ahead of celebrating global Software Freedom Day on Saturday, several of the country's open source user interest groups have been busy jointly hosting a number of related events this week.

"Patents are short-term monopolies (20 years) designed to give inventors sufficient time in which to recoup their R&D costs and turn a profit. Open source turns the 20-year patent term into two years, if that. As a relentless, ever-growing competitor, open source keeps the proprietary world in check and on its toes to a degree that the industry has never before seen."

It's been a landmark year for open source, and in so many different ways that even a casual survey of the year's events will range far and wide. Here's a quick rundown of what to me were the top five open source events of the year.

I recently spent some time talking with Christine Martino, Hewlett-Packard's vice president of Linux and open source, about HP's plans to provide services around open-source software. That HP is doing this is now old news (the news broke this week). But the truly interesting thing in this is HP itself.