Should "open source" be a consumer product attribute? It would apply to Firefox, Thunderbird, Linux desktop, other software on the Linux desktop like Evolution.
What would "open source" imply? How about:
– quality/stability (tested by hundred of thousands of people)
– secure (still dependent on management of security issues)
– innovative (collective brain-power tackling new concepts)
– collaboration
– standards
– community based AND commercial support options
I feel like "open source" already means all of the above so let's get it to stick!
What should "open source" not imply? How about:
– free (as in the software is free, lots of confusion here)
– anti-business or capitalism
– IP nightmare
– "volunteers" (people who are unpaid), this essentially becomes unreliable, unsustainable
Well, given that quick little exercise it sounds like "open source" is something we do want to use as an attribute. Other companies like Yahoo and Google and such who do use open source products/solutions on the server-side should do it too. Just about everyone uses bugzilla and lots of companies are on the LAMP server-stack. That screams we're spending money on the right things.
Also, speaking more about the testing community and that process, will hopefully establish "open source" as the more reliable solution.