November is magical. Not only to appreciate #ColorfulFall but also 35 years ago, Microsoft took the PC revolution to a whole new level by launching Windows 1.0 on 1985/11/20. Like it or not: “Software is eating the world”. Which might happen much later without MS putting the big dent in the computing universe. For me, I still remember building the 1st Windows version of the Air-Sea Battle Intelligent System for the army on Kinmen Islands 26 years ago as my mandatory military service for Taiwan. Even the GUI was very primitive, it’s enough to impress a bunch of high-ranking officers trying to recruit me. Thank you, MS 🤑.
As we are all standing on the shoulders of giants, I’m increasingly interested in exploring what control levers we can push forward further. So the next generation may prosper better. Open Source is on the top of my list. No matter what you do in Tech, I believe we own the next-generation more Open Source practices in more sustainable businesses, because
- CS literacy is a skill in high demand.
- No one needs to ask permission to read a book. So, why does so for a program they use?
- Why not help more brave entrepreneurs pushing forward instead of re-creating wheels.
CS Literacy — A Skill In High Demand
CS-literacy will be a key factor of Comparative Advantage for some places, e.g. the Silicon Valley or Silicon Valley of [whatever country]. According to a Mckinsey report in 2017, 75–375 million workers may need to learn new skills to switch job categories globally by 2030. For the current or future workers, we all need to learn new skills in our Pursuit Of Happiness. So if you are open to up-skilling or re-skilling, you want to ride the digital transformation wave. Big techs are helping you & themself to build the talent supply, for example, Grow stronger with Google. Also a brighter side, Computer Science is now a particular focus of US DoE STEM focus.
Open Source As A Book Opens
Can you imagine a world that you have to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements, or pay Non-Recurring Engineering costs to read a book? So, why are we doing so for software? Don’t get me wrong, building a sustainable business from Open Source is important. e.g. just like a book, people may still pay for the convenience of accessing. Which made book & publication a big business. Only the business models have to be updated according to the new tech. & market context. Which is a topic for another day itself. But today, why software & knowledge have to be kept within the company boundary? Just consider 3 arguments:
1. New generations have no access to the code & knowledge of the previous generations. Sure, it gives a business edge for a few, but at the expense of slowing down the progress of the civilization, why?
2. It also put the users at the mercy of a few without any alternative. No one can escape this when a business decides to end an SW product. Not even mighty Navies. For example, USS Yorktown was sunk by Windows NT in 1998. In 2017, the new Queen Elizabeth carrier launched with an old soul, Windows XP.
3. With more eyes watching may keep companies more mindful, aka the watching-eye effect. Sure, I might over extrapolate it. But, I do pay extra attention to whatever I do in the public, no matter if anyone is watching, won’t you? Arguably, it might save Apple $113 million fine for slowing down old iPhones.
Pushing Forward 🙏
BTW, MS could you please consider open-source Windows 7 when you’re too tired to collect tolls? Sure, it’s easy for me to say & difficult for MS to deal with many & complex constraints. Which’s why it takes courage. Just saying 😉.
Anyway, no matter what’ll be the big thing in the 2030s, I bet it has to an open-source project 🤞. Learn the lesson from Windows, it’s much easier to open from day one than to consider it later. The choice is yours, brave entrepreneurs.
Full Disclosure
The opinions stated here are my own, not those of my company. They are mostly extrapolations from public information. I don’t have insider knowledge of those companies, nor a whatever expert.
