Open Source: Will I Become a Late Adopter?

I am a mainstream-ist.  I run Windows on my computer.  On it, I have a lot of proprietary software.  Other than video games, I have products made by big-name companies, such as Microsoft’s Visual Studio for C# and C++ programming and Office for writing documents and creating spread sheets and slideshows.  This is in contrast to some other dedicated computer users, who use lesser-known operating systems such as Linux and tend to have a large library of free-licensed software.  Graphic artists may, for example, use the free GIMP software to edit pictures instead of the expensive, professional-grade Adobe Photoshop.

Since I mainly use Windows, I am sometimes at a slight disadvantage when I need to program at a low level such as C or Assembly, as most compilers for low-level programming tend to, from my experience, be optimized for Unix-like environments.

Open source as a computing concept is not limited to downloadable software, however, as MediaWiki, known for powering major websites such as Wikipedia, is an example of open-source web software, which anyone from just about any computer can access without any actual software needing to be installed.

Open source platforms have varying levels of success.  Linux, while liked by many hardcore computer enthusiasts, is still niche in the overall market for PC operating systems, whereas the operating system Android, used mainly for mobile phones, rivals iOS, Apple’s operating system for its mobile devices.  Even then, while Android has success in the mobile phone market, it fared poorly when it was used to make the Ouya[1], an open-source video game system.  There are many possible reasons for why open source platforms seldom become mainstream, such as a lack of official advertising or a lack of brand recognition.

Supporters of open source often cite how such projects can be constantly contributed towards and improved by both old and new programmers, potentially lenthening the lifecycle of the software.  The fact that the Internet allows projects of any size to be shared easily helps matters,  with websites such as SourceForge being a popular repository for open-source projects.

Finally, two years ago, one of my roommates, who was a senior software engineering major, said to me that he did not believe in software that one had to pay for.  Believing in a capitalistic society where everyone has the right to demand fair, but not necessarily equal, compensation for their labour and talent, I was not sure if I could wholeheartedly agree with my roommate.  After all, computer programming is a highly-sought talent, so why would some programmers choose not to monetize their skill?  For a large-scale software project to reach its full potential, it needs to be backed by a large amount of research, and research costs time and human resources.  Because of this, it remains to be seen how sustainable open-source development can be for those types of projects.