In a 2018 interview, technology executive Mårten Mickos described open source’s journey from an approach many dismissed as a toy to a widely used way to develop software. His larger point was about people as much as code: open source lets people who disagree work together, but that cooperation takes continuing effort to sustain.
What Mickos says changed
When Mickos joined MySQL as CEO in 2001, he recalls, many people viewed open source as suitable only for toys or startups. In his account, it gradually became a default software-development model. That is a personal recollection from his career, not a quantified measure of adoption across the industry.
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The shift matters because it challenged the assumption that software had to be developed behind closed doors by a single organization. Open development can let people outside one company inspect code, contribute changes, and build on shared work—subject to the rights and conditions in the applicable license.
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Mickos made the social dimension central: “One of the greatest benefits of open source is that it has created a model where smart people who disagree with each other can collaborate with each other.” The model does not require participants to share a boss, a business plan, or the same opinions. They can cooperate around software and rules they can examine.
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Open source means more than visible code
A public code repository is not, by itself, enough to make a project open source in the formal sense. The Open Source Initiative’s Open Source Definition sets out licensing criteria, including access to source, permission to create and distribute derived works, and non-discrimination against people or fields of endeavor. The definition’s text is version 1.9, last modified 22 March 2007; the OSI page was last modified 16 February 2024. Read the Open Source Definition.
This distinction helps explain why openness is both a technical and a governance choice. Visibility makes inspection possible; a qualifying license determines what people are permitted to do with the software. Projects may also set practical contribution processes, but those processes do not replace the license.
Why disagreement can become collaboration
Open source gives contributors a shared object of work without requiring consensus on everything else. A developer, a company, and a user may have different motives yet still improve the same program. Public discussion and visible changes can make it easier to evaluate proposals and preserve a record of decisions.
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That does not mean cooperation happens automatically. Mickos rejects the idea that the model runs on goodwill alone: “It’s not dependent on any charity. It’s not dependent on altruism. It’s not dependent on friendship.” His point is that collaboration can be organized around a useful project and workable rules rather than personal closeness. In practice, projects still need people to review contributions, make decisions, and maintain software.
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Can open-source software be more secure?
Mickos argues that public development can help security because more people may inspect the code and problems can be discussed candidly. In the interview, he says vulnerabilities may be more visible and more likely to be fixed in open development. He characterizes this as a benefit of transparency, not a security mechanism that works by magic.
The interview does not present a controlled comparison, vulnerability-rate data, or measured security outcomes that would establish open source as universally more secure than closed-source software. Visibility can support scrutiny, but it does not guarantee that anyone will inspect a project, find a flaw, or fix it promptly. Security depends on the actual development, disclosure, and maintenance practices as well as the code’s availability.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why the model needs ongoing work
Mickos says open source must be sustained through education and effort. “We have to educate everybody, like any civilization needs to keep educating the population on what’s important.” That includes helping contributors and users understand licensing, project norms, and how to participate constructively.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesThe Open Source Initiative’s 2024 State of Open Source survey, conducted with OpenLogic by Perforce and the Eclipse Foundation, received responses from more than 2,000 open-source users across industries and organization sizes. That describes the survey’s respondent sample; it is not a count of global users or a measurement of open source’s market share, economic value, or security. OSI’s survey announcement.
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The OSI’s 2024 annual report also documents continuing work on licensing and legal stewardship, policy and standards, research and outreach, and the development of an Open Source AI Definition. These are examples of the ongoing work required to clarify and govern open-source practice as it expands into new areas. Read the OSI 2024 annual report.
The lasting change Mickos sees
Mickos’s account is not a numerical assessment of open source’s impact. It is an argument about a development model: shared code and licensing freedoms can create room for collaboration across differences, while transparency can help people scrutinize and discuss problems. The model’s benefits depend on continued participation, education, and maintenance. As he put it in the 2018 interview, “Transparency, openness and collaboration will never go out of fashion.”
Read Swapnil Bhartiya’s full Linux Foundation interview with Mårten Mickos, published 22 August 2018.
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