Google goes open source
Posted by Alec Saunders

Alright… what's with Google getting all warm and fuzzy and open source-y on us all in the last week? First it was Open Social, the open source social networking initiative, and now it's the Open Handset Alliance and the new Android platform for mobile phones. Eric Schmidt is beginning to sound a whole bunch like Scott McNealy or Linus Torvalds, doncha think? There are two kinds of open source companies, kids. There are companies that see open source as an article of faith. Think of Red Hat, or Digium, to use two very well known examples. Each of these companies are strong proponents of the open source model, and open source everything they do. They're religious about open source. At the other end of the spectrum are companies that are strategic open sourcers. For them, open source is a tool. They use it in their own products to reduce their costs. They open source bits of their own code in order to cultivate a developer community. Read more of Alec's blog here.