Now, here's something that I think is enormously significant, and something I welcome wholeheartedly. Mitch Kapor, founder of the Lotus Corporation, is starting an open-source effort to produce open, distributed personal information manager (PIM) software, a foundation stone for integrated personal application suites.
He claims it is not an "Outlook Killer" but I think if he accomplishes even a piece of that objective, and provides a real, effective alternative to that clumsy, over-featured, badly implemented, security-sieved, monopolistic product set, he and his colleagues will have done the world a favour. I like his modest statement of objectives:
"we're focused on creating an innovative, high quality product that users love. We're not thinking about how to beat Microsoft. Competition is a great motivator, but it's not the only one. Giving computer users more software options by making a great product is quite a motivator as well."
Dan Gillmore's comments.
Scott Rosenberg covers the issue also.
Dave Winer, of course, has an opinion, emotional, and Lawrence Lessig a professorial response.
Open source is certainly a force which is here to stay. The issue of how software developers get compensated for their creativity will surely get sorted out. And there is no doubt that the world needs a quality alternative to Microsoft software.
3:14:35 AM 
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