Open Source: Lovers, Haters, and How the Cloud Blurs the Lines

Open Source: Lovers, Haters, and How the Cloud Blurs the Lines — If you talk to the average software user, geospatial or not, about open source software you usually find three camps: Lovers, Haters, and Converters. Let's put these camps in crudely defined boxes: Open source "Lovers" are the lifers that live, breathe, and have never used anything but open source software. Lovers shun the ideals and smirk at the drones flocking to suckling off the teat of the well-polished commercial vendor. Lovers have a solution-building personality. They do not want to rely on others to solve their problems. They are not concerned with policies and procedures, rather just on getting the job done.