10gen: "Get Paid For Developing Open Source Software"
ongig.com
ongig.com
Lately I've noticed a lot of "open source" projects that don't feel open source at all. Chrome, Android and Mongo all jump to mind. In each case one company does nearly all of the work and dictates what the product does and where it goes.
It is true that I can fork as I wish, but the odds of my indie fork being able to keep up or compete long enough to gain escape velocity seem unbelievably low. It seems that whatever 10gen or Google want to do on these projects they can do with little chance of reprisal from any open source community.
Perhaps there should be a new name for software whose source is available but is effectively controlled by a for-profit entity.
If we need a new word for this type of behavior to distinguish it from FOSS, then I hope it's a word with strong positive connotations, because it's a great thing for for-profit companies to be doing, especially when most for-profit technologies companies today are standing on the shoulders of open source giants of the past.
While a bit extreme I might compare it to the agricultural aid practices of Western governments. In many cases they are fantastic, but often they also serve as a way to destroy blossoming agricultural economies. Without working domestic agriculture country development is often stunted (in the case of Mongo, work on a truly open source alternative).
Separate digressions:
I would also argue that much more of modern software is actually built on progress made by proprietary technology than people give credit, but that's a separate debate. I fully recognize the value of open source and it is my preference
An interesting counterpoint to my agriculture argument would be free trade across borders debates. Much like the US can feed the world for nothing, manufacturing was done more effectively in one place (China for awhile) but I wouldn't argue for restrictions on how China behaved to get us dependent on them (though currency manipulation and workers rights might come up).