| Summary: | Open-source software, which makes the source code of a program freely available, is not doomed yet, despite the dotcom crash and pressure from proprietary software firms like Microsoft. The free operating system Linux is winning converts among government agencies and investment banks—free software is appealing when technology budgets are tight, and the scrutiny of so many eyes tends to make the source code more secure and robust than proprietary software. Perhaps the biggest achievement of the open-source movement to date has been to demonstrate that in many cases there is a better way to develop code. What is most surprising, however, is that firms outside the technology industry have begun using open-source techniques. Examples of this from within the banking industry are provided.
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