What is the proper balance between open source and proprietary software? Robert "r0ml" Lefkowitz develops an answer to this question by first trying to come up with a useful metaphor. He begins by discussing the background of the tomato, reviewing various historic events, including the early belief that it was poisonous, all the way to the development of the first genetically engineered tomato.
From this, he asks various questions that might be useful in coming up with a way to quantify open source use. This task is made more complicated by the fact that proprietary software often has an open source component. In the end, he believes that a good target is to have approximately one third of software be open source, just as eating five fruits and vegetables a day is good for a balanced diet.
Robert "r0ml" Lefkowitz is a software architect and systems designer with over thirty years of experience. For two decades, r0ml worked on Wall Street, developing market data, trading, risk management, and quantitative analysis systems. More recently, as chief technical architect at AT&T Wireless, he drove the improvement of their CRM, ERP, commission, and data warehousing systems. Over the last several years, r0ml has become increasingly interested in open source software strategy at large enterprises, and is a frequent speaker on the topic.
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