Darryl K. Taft in the article about Rod Johnson wrote:Johnson also discussed the value of open-source software to development projects, but he looked at it from the perspective of what open source is not. "Open source is not about getting something for nothing, or changing the world by giving things away," he said. "Software is a business. Complex software projects need a viable economic model behind them. Open source is becoming more like traditional business. And it's not about making closed-source obsolete," he said. "Open source will probably steadily encroach on commercial software," but it will take a long time, he said.

What open source is about is "community, pride, freedom of information, a close relationship to users, and easier debugging," Johnson said.

"A well-run open-source project is probably an easier path to good software products, but it needs the exact same conditions as a commercial software product," he said.

Moreover, Johnson said he thinks "it is unwise and expensive to build a J2EE application today without using at least some open-source software."

Johnson said open-source software tends to get "too easy a ride today." He said you have to look at total cost of ownership when deciding what technology is best for your purposes.