What Do You Think Software Will Look Like in 2017?

Ben Worthen at the WSJ posted a very interesting survey asking for predictions of the future of software. Is the evolution from proprietary client-server architecture underway to a more open-source, highly distributed, and web-server-script-enabled replacement? Im not a developer, but I am a marketer and its my opinion that the market seeks three things today offered only by open-source software: access; trust; and value.

1. Access. It's widely available. There are tools and solutions for everything.


2. Trust. The communities are large and growing. New users can sit on the sideline and read forums and message boards anonymously, but still get valuable, trustworthy information. It's self-policing and even the largest enterprises now include open source as part of thier IT stack.


3. Value. Its free. And developers love to build better widgets, so its all cutting-edge stuff, too.

An interesting question also is what will the large, packaged application ISVs, such as Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, and SAP do in the long run? What do you think?

Speak with you soon. DC