In some ways, LAX is us. We are the United States of Deferred Maintenance. China is the People’s Republic of Deferred Gratification. They save, invest and build. We spend, borrow and patch.

via Op-Ed Columnist – A Word From the Wise – NYTimes.com. Friedman once again on the US stumbling on the way to building a 21st century economy.

All this points to one thing: Open source is an infrastructure. Just like the roads in the city that automobile manufacturers are interested in, software companies want access to existing infrastructure to build their own products upon and make money, instead of having to re-invent the wheel everytime. It’s a win-win situation for all companies. Paying Microsoft to get Windows to support their products can be an expensive affair. So making an operating system a commodity is in everyone’s interests (well, except Microsoft’s). The web browser is another example of a commodity today. Everyone’s interested in a good, conformant, open platform on which to develop their web applications on.

via Modern thoughts on open source | Artagnon’s Presence.