Open Source for those who open the Source

Open Source is a great idea for academicians, who are competent, willing and
with a mindset to open the source, improve it, add value it and share it with
others freely. It is not for those who may not be competent (it does not mean
incompetent individuals, it could be those immensely competent individuals in
many fields, who may not be competent to appreciate the source code of a
particular software), willing to open (those in industry who would rather pay,
demand and get a superior service rather than spend their valuable time
opening the source) and without a mindset to share with others (those who
would make money, of course by fair means, through selling their products).
Not appreciating this point causes a lot of confusion in people’s minds;
proposing that Open Source is for everyone is rather superficial.

Society pays academics a salary only to pursue studies; students have to
explore and experiment in order to learn. Naturally for them Open Source is
great; others should carefully examine the relevance of Open Source for them
and then (and then alone) decide.

(Part of the Panel Discussion on Open Source organized at Delhi on January
23, 2004)