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Open Source Categories
Without getting into licensing, I have found that open source falls into two main categories. The first category is Open Source projects that started out as open source and are developed and maintained by the open source community. the second category of open source category in my view is the failed product category, Many OIP view open source as free, but I view it as a product that I am willing to spend my time to use. To me, time is worth a lot more than money. I can always change jobs, or get an extra job to earn more money, but time is finite, and we are only allocated what we will use over a lifetime, and when it is gone, we are finished.
Category One Open Source
Before the PC, when we had real "personal conputers", when "personal computer" meant something, there was "open source". We called it sharing software, and we collaborated to keep improving our applications. I view open source as a extension of this spirit.
Some examples of category one open source that come to mind are Linux, Apache, and Mozilla, to name just a few. This category of software has a focal point where decisions are made as to the best code to incorporate into the product.
This is the category of software that will continue to be supported, and have the quality of world class applications.
Category Two Open Source
This category is where failed applications go in a last ditch attempt to survive. Sometimes I think this group of software is just wishful thinking, hoping for a silver bullet that will somehow spark a demand for the product that could not compete with world class products. Actually to be fair, some the the products were OK, but they were not marketed.