As 2012 approaches, one thing is clear. The transformation of the 21st century software industry across many different categories is largely being driven by the open source movement. In fact, I would argue that the open source movement---In all its forms---Is nothing less than a rising software superpower in its own right. Here are 4 facts to support my argument.

1. Open source has its first billion dollar ISV.

That would be Red Hat, which is now on a revenue…

The history of the high tech industry in the United States and around the world is the history of how partner-advantaged business models create virtuous cycles of value creation and economic opportunity. Here's what I mean by that.

According to research firm IDC, for every dollar of revenue Microsoft takes in, their partners take in $8.70. You're not a fan of…

Great article and interview with Jim Zemlin of the Linux Foundation in Network World laying out the business case for commercial vendors to participate in giving back to open source initiatives. Doesn't get any better than this so no need to comment, except to say that I see his argument as a core element of platformula strategy development for cloud companies. Link…

In less than 2 years a new model and competitive pattern has snapped firmly into place on the software superpower landscape.This pattern now defines superpower rivalry in both enterprise and consumer markets. I describe this pattern as the 'device + service' or D+S pattern.



Let's look first at the enterprise superpowers.



Oracle: In the wake of its acquisition of Sun Microsystems, Oracle has repositioned itself as a D+S company. Even their new brand…