By some estimates there are roughly 190 million companies on earth today. Imagine if they were all contributing to open source. Of course, most of those companies aren’t in a position to contribute code, but if we want truly sustainable, customer-friendly open source, it’s time to focus on the best possible source: companies that don’t sell software.

Why? Because the more software is built to suit the needs of those who are actually running it day-to-day, the better that software will be, and the less we’ll need to worry about sustainability. ITWorld’s Matt Asay points out that the real innovation in open source stems from customers; that is, from enterprises who use open source to build their businesses and contribute code accordingly.

[Source: ITWorld]