Key open source advocates point to databases, security and storage as the next big categories ripe for commoditization. At a panel exploring open source issues at Harvard Business School's annual Cyberposium, executives from IBM, Hwwlett Packard, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems and Microsoft debated a variety of issues related to the future of open source, including growth areas and controversial procurement issues. . . .
Key open source advocates point to databases, security and storage as the next big categories ripe for commoditization. At a panel exploring open source issues at Harvard Business School's annual Cyberposium, executives from IBM, Hwwlett Packard, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems and Microsoft debated a variety of issues related to the future of open source, including growth areas and controversial procurement issues.

All the executives - including one from Microsoft - agreed on one thing, for sure, acceptance of open source and Linux have moved well beyond the operating system stage and are moving quickly upstream.

"We don't know. It'll grow," said Dan Frye, director of IBM's Linux Technology Group. "But the VCs [venture capitalists ] are calling again. There's been an evolution in the thinking that open source doesn't have a business model."

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