Posted 02/26/09 at 01:35:11 PM by David Murphy

It almost seems like common sense, but 37signals' Jason Fried had some specific words for those in attendance at this year's Future of Web Apps conference in Miami, Florida: the future is not free.

Continuing on, his point is that companies need to turn away from the business model of pump-and-dumping free applications to a gleeful audience.  Open-source and free software might be an excellent means for attracting attention and eyeballs to a product, but now is not the time to pack alternate revenue strategies around these concepts.  Advertising and other extraneous revenue add-ons are a distraction, argues Fried.  It's time to shift back to a meat-and-potatoes business model, and that involves selling a product that contains enough quality to make an audience want to pay for it, even given the current economic difficulties.

That said, there's still room for free in some capacity--read on to find out where Fried thinks free applications can exist!

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Posted 01/02/09 at 02:00:00 PM by David Murphy

As we get ready to celebrate the end of 2008 and start of 2009, it's important to put down the champagne glasses for a moment and consider all of the big open-source stories that have come across over the past year.  There have been a lot.  In fact, we've even gone and chronicled some of the bigger stories for you already.  If you haven't checked it out yet, do so.  Like watching The Empire Strikes Back before A New Hope, you'll be lost if you read on much further.  That's because we're now taking a look at what's in store for the open-source world in 2009.

We'll get to the specific predictions in a big, but here's the big picture: the open-source software world is on the up, up, up.  We called this out in a news article awhile ago once the economy started taking a dive.  Guess what?  The economy's still taking a dive, and companies long and far are taking an increased interest in the open-source community.  That's because open-source solutions can help them generate cost savings over expensive, proprietary software without a loss of business quality or functionality. And that translates into increased opportunities for open-source developers -everybody wins!  Unless you're Microsoft and think the entire affair is rubbish.  But enough of that...  onto the predictions!

Click the link to jump into the open-source world of 2009!

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Posted 10/08/08 at 09:56:45 PM by Mark Edward Soper

Just as we nerds have overhyped some technologies, we've also overlooked some even better alternatives. PC World has put on its thinking cap and posted its picks for the ten most overrated technology products and services - and alternatives that deserve a closer look.

So, How Would You Rate These Contenders?

• Ultra-portable laptops versus mini-laptops
• Microsoft Zune versus Apple iPod Touch
• Windows XP versus Windows Vista

To discover which ones get the overrated razz, and which ones deserve some unexpected love, join us after the break.

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