OReilly Gazes Into the Future of Open Source

"When is someone going to come along and build a Dell-like solution for open source; that new process of assembling on the fly? Its about building Linux as a process rather than as a product," OReilly said.

There are also many opportunities for people to find pieces of added value, with Suns Java 2 Enterprise Edition and Microsofts .Net attempting to be the next revolution in the Internet.

Regarding open source and services, an open-source business model has to move beyond just professional services and include services delivered to end users, he said, adding that UUNet, not Red Hat, is the greatest open-source business success to date.

Google, PayPal, Amazon and others are the next step on the path to a services-related environment. "I believe that we are building an Internet operating system and thats the challenge ahead of us," he said.

All open-source developers need to be looking at peer-to-peer and ad-hoc networking, wireless, cell phones and other mobile devices, as well as pervasive computing if they want to stay competitive.

"We have to use the commodity software components to drive down prices for others, give customers increased opportunity for customization, leverage collaborative development processes and participatory interfaces beyond software," he said.

"We also have to rethink open source in the context of Web services and network computing. You guys have started all sorts of amazing things, but we have to think where we are going to end up, where it is taking us. We have to look at long-term trends and build that in," he told the attendees.