Tied Up in Court

, and individual users around the globe have already been turning to open source software such as for cost, security, customizability, interoperability and freedom from vendor lock-in, among other reasons. But as companies like Apple and Microsoft become increasingly tied up in the courts, I believe open source is also going to be the one area of software left in which and thrive.

The bottom line here is that no organization can be an island anymore. Apple may still enjoy a religiously devoted fan base, and it certainly does a lot of things right. For the future, though, it needs to recognize that closed, secret, locked-in and locked-down is unlikely to be a winning strategy in this increasingly open and global world.