I've just returned from the Open Source Think Tank, an annual event held in California that brings together CEOs, CIOs and others from the world of free and open source software (FOSS). Having spent 2.5 intense days discussing all manner of issues affecting companies within the FOSS industry, I'm happy to report that FOSS buisnesses are alive and well and, dare I say, thriving.

It's fair to say that much of the casual conversation and "buzz" around the conference dealt with the recent Sun acquisition of MySQL but that, overall, everyone is pleased with the uptake of FOSS within the enterprise sector and among developers around the world and that the adoption of FOSS will continue to increase.

One other prominent point was that FOSS companies need to start acting like "traditional" companies and essentially realize that being a FOSS company is no longer a remarkable value proposition in and of itself. In other words, while being a developer or purveyor of FOSS solutions is attractive to many consumers, that alone isn't enough anymore, i.e. business is business and a sale is a sale.

All in all, however, there was an overwhelming sense of optimism among those gathered and a feeling that, despite the general downturn in the US economy, if not in the world in general, the future of FOSS looks very bright indeed.

JDR