While the Open Source Initiative sought to encourage the use of the new term and evangelize the principles it adhered to, corporations found themselves increasingly threatened by the concept of freely distributed software and universal access to an application`s source code. A Microsoft executive publicly stated in 2001 that "open source is an intellectual property destroyer. I can't imagine something that could be worse than this for the software business and the intellectual-property business." [1] This view perfectly summarizes the initial response to FOSS by the majority of big business. However, while FOSS has historically played a role outside of the mainstream of private software development companies as large as Microsoft have begun to develop official open source presences on the Internet. Corporations ranging from IBM, Oracle, Google and State Farm are just a few of the big names with a serious public stakes in today's competitive open source market signalling a shift in the corporate philosophy concerning the development of free to access software.[2]
- ^ B. Charny, “Microsof t Raps Open-Source Approach,” CNET News, 3 May 2001; http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-257001.html&tag=mncol%3btxt
- ^ Jeffrey Voas, Keith W. Miller & Tom Costello. Free and Open Source Software. IT Professional 12(6) (November 2010), pg. 14-16.