We're hearing more from vendors about how new features, functionality, rewrites and releases are being driven by customers -- by their direct experience using the software and competing in their various industries.

We're also hearing from customers and users, including the enterprise market, that increasingly they are involved and thus empowered in open source software communities, where they are collaborating on code and road maps and collectively requiring flexibility and openness, including that code and improvements be contributed upstream.

These perspectives on the sell-side and now the buy-side seem to indicate we have arrived at Open Source 2.0.

This newer open source software trend is a natural progression and evolution of the movement away from developer-centric communities toward communities that have had a higher regard and respect for the user -- particularly in the enterprise, where getting more participants to a project can translate to dollars.

Open Source 2.0 is characterized by a higher level of involvement and participation by users and customers, given the wide range of commercial vendors providing support. Today's successful open source communities also are characterized by a higher level of collaboration among users and customers, whereby they pool resources and team up for a number of reasons: to avoid vendor lock-in; to negotiate better terms or prices; or to require that contributions be routed upstream.

In turn, these users and customers are empowered to further drive and steer open source projects and communities, as well as to share their knowledge and experience with others, further expanding open source ecosystems.

There has been an evolution of user and customer thinking and behavior with respect to open source cloud software, for instance, as noted in 451 Research's recent report on the OpenStack cloud computing project and market.

Previously, some large-scale users were directly involved in collaboration in terms of dealing with and resolving OpenStack issues, particularly for enterprises and at large scale, as noted in 451 Research's 00000 on OpenStack in 2013.

However, that customer community, like the OpenStack code, also has been evolving and maturing -- to the point where OpenStack customers now are banding together on requirements for multiple vendors and service-level expectations, as 451 Research's recent report found. This customer side of the community will continue to play an important role in OpenStack's ongoing evolution.

Another area where open source software has evolved is DevOps, a reference to more agile, rapid and efficient methodologies, technologies and processes in managing IT infrastructure, application development and deployments.

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What's Driving Open Source 2.0?

The open source community is "quite a sick place to be in," Red Hat engineer and Systemd developer Lennart Poettering said Monday in a post on Google+.

"The open source community is full of [assh*les], and I probably more than most others am one of their most favorite targets," Poettering added. "I get hate mail for hacking on open source. People have started multiple 'petitions' .... asking me to stop working. Recently, people started collecting Bitcoins to hire a hitman for me (this really happened!)."

Linux creator Linus Torvalds himself gets a significant share of Poettering's blame, but in general, "the Linux community is dominated by western, white, straight, males in their 30s and 40s these days," he wrote. "I perfectly fit in that pattern, and the rubbish they pour over me is awful. I can only imagine that it is much worse for members of minorities, or people from different cultural backgrounds."

Bottom line, though, is that "open source is awful in many ways, and people should be aware of this," he concluded. "I have no intentions to ever talk about this again on a public forum."

Open source communities are "at their best when diverse opinions come together to drive innovation and achieve common goals," Red Hat spokesperson Stephanie Wonderlick told LinuxInsider.

"While community members may engage in healthy, sometimes spirited dialogue, it is essential that all community members are treated with respect," she added. "Hateful or abusive behavior is unacceptable and cannot be tolerated in any community."

Poettering did not respond to our request for further details.

"Poettering makes some good points, and they're not new -- I'm always a little surprised that civility is still controversial," Linux guru Carla Schroder told LinuxInsider. "I don't blame him for being upset, because he has been the target of some seriously twisted and vicious attacks."

The world of free and open source software is "far from being a meritocracy; it is as political and personality-driven as any other human endeavor," Schroder said.

As for fixing the problem, "it's futile to hope that Linus or anyone else will change their management styles; it would be nice if having rhino hide were not the No. 1 requirement to become a contributor in so many Linux projects," she added. "You don't attract and keep contributors by being abusive, a simple truth that still escapes many."

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Systemd Dev Slams FOSS Culture