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…

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…

Many 21st century ISVs position their startups as cloud companies. And why not? From a general technology point of view it's where everything is converging. In this case "converging" means software converging with devices converging with on-demand services converging with rich media converging with social networks converging with mobility converging with advertising converging with....you know...everything...as a service. 

To compete at peak capacity in the age of cloud, it's…