Open Source races to the top

Last week's OSCON conference served to remind us that open source software is setting the pace. We've come a very long way from the old saw that "open source doesn't innovate." Instead, you might ask: Is innovation in enterprise software happening anywhere else other than in open source land?

Hadoop is at the center of the big data trend. OpenStack has the momentum in private cloud. Open source frameworks and IDEs absolutely dominate app dev, while all the leading NoSQL databases are open source. Do I need to mention that Android now powers more smartphones than any other mobile OS? Plus, Microsoft and Salesforce excepted, you'd be hard-pressed to find a cloud provider that uses anything but open source software to deliver its service.

...This year, for the first time, respondents to the annual Future of Open Source Survey chose "better software quality" as the No. 1 reason for adopting open source. Sounds like the word is getting around.