The Open Road

Is now the right time for open source in hedge funds?

Matt Asay — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:43:00 PST

I've blogged about Marketcetera before, a cool open-source hedge fund trading platform. Later this week I'll be posting an update after I interview the Marketcetera team, but keep bumping into stories that make me wish the interview were today, not Thursday.

For example, Businessweek recently offered up an ...

Are tech workers back to a 9-to-5 existence?

Matt Asay — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:02:00 PST

Not that anyone was in doubt, but The New York Times is reporting that venture capitalists are struggling to sell their start-ups. With technology entrepreneurs having little prospect of a big exit through the IPO or M&A markets, is the bi-weekly paycheck the new god of Silicon Valley?...

Easing SaaS lock-in with open source

Matt Asay — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:07:00 PST

Larry Dignan at ZDNet calls out a significant customer concern with SaaS: data lock-in, particularly if a SaaS vendor goes out of business. How can a SaaS customer get its data out of a failed SaaS system without undergoing the burden of escrow agreements?

The answer is simple, but perhaps ...

Apple shows us how to compete with Microsoft

Matt Asay — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:07:00 PST

I suggested on Monday that Dell should acquire Red Hat to build its software business with open source. While there is a range of valid concerns about such a move, perhaps the biggest complaint was, "What if Microsoft doesn't like it?"

This concern ...

Two big reasons Dell should buy Red Hat

Matt Asay — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:19:00 PST

Dell's biggest problem is that its one-time differentiation--low-cost hardware assembly and distribution--is now common industry practice. Indeed, it now routinely gets beaten at its own game, as called out in a recent article by Ashlee Vance in The New York Times.

Dell's growth, to revenue of $56 billion ...

Finding employment safe havens in the recession

Matt Asay — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:12:00 PST

TechNewsWorld suggests that the technology industry may be relatively insulated from job losses in the recession. Yes, technology has its share of job cuts, and any cut is painful if you're on the receiving end, but there are bright spots in the economy.

Open source is one of them....

Managing my Twitter existence

Matt Asay — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:15:00 PST

I've not traditionally been much of a Twitter fan, once deriding it as "Wonder bread."

I've increasingly found, however, that Twitter serves a useful function for me, fitting in between blogs and instant messaging as a "micro-blogging" tool, as Glyn Moody suggests. It's also a way for ...

VCs' focus on revenue could benefit open source

Matt Asay — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 08:07:00 PST

In a not-so-surprising turn of events, The New York Times reports that Silicon Valley venture capitalists actually care about revenue again.

After years of investing in Web 2.0 companies that generate eyeballs and weird brands but little revenue, VCs have decided that businesses that actually make money are a ...

Should software face the flat-rate music future?

Matt Asay — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 07:07:00 PST

CD sales dropped 20 percent in 2008, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. But this isn't the whole story.

As Ars Technica points out, the music industry as a whole grew in 2008, with online sales accelerating. But this, too, doesn't tell the whole story.

The real ...

EMC reportedly buys SourceLabs, but for what purpose?

Matt Asay — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 20:07:00 PST

TechFlash is reporting that EMC has purchased SourceLabs for an undisclosed fee. The unanswered question in TechFlash's report is why EMC would buy SourceLabs, a provider of support tools for Linux and other open-source software.

It's not that SourceLabs isn't a good company. I have followed SourceLabs ...