Communications of the ACM
Why Free Software Is Not a Job Killer
Does free software cost jobs? In a Computerworld UK article, author John Spencer laments that during the current recession, the message of free and open source software's (FLOSS) cost benefits have indeed been taken to heart, so much so that there are hardly any open IT jobs in the British education sector.
The real issue Spencer seems to have a problem with is not FLOSS, but rather the cloud. Web-based, software services are what are driving the need for jobs down in Britain's IT sector. Because FLOSS enables much of this software as a service (SaaS), then it becomes the root cause of the reduction in jobs.
SaaS may indeed be putting a ceiling and even pushing down on IT jobs. Or it may be redistributing those jobs to other companies and sectors and there is no net loss of IT jobs. Or course, in the middle of this particular economy, it is hard to tell if the IT jobs are down because of SaaS or general end-is-nigh economics.
From ITworld
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