Matt Asay says, “The Wall Street Journal thinks it’s news that Zulily is developing “more software in-house.” It’s not. At all. As Eric Raymond wrote years ago, 95% of the world’s software is written for use, not for sale. The reasons are many, but one stands out: as Zulily CIO Luke Friang declares, it’s “nearly impossible for a [off the shelf] solution to keep up with our pace.”

True now, just as it was true 20 years ago.

But one thing is different, and it’s something the WSJ completely missed. Historically software developed in-house was zealously kept proprietary because, the reasoning went, it was the source of a firm’s competitive advantage. Today, however, companies increasingly realize the opposite: there is far more to be gained by open sourcing in-house software than keeping it closed”.

Why Your Company Needs To Write More Open Source Software

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