This CNET article is an interesting read. The gist is that open source is growing the opportunity for services business. What I find interesting is that many companies avoid in-house development because of cost, time to market, ongoing support costs, etc. Now it appears open source will be introducting these factors to basic infrastructure.

Now don't get me wrong, I know full well that an Active Directory or Exchange roll-out often requires outside consulting (of course, I come from the school of if you aren't smart enough to install it you aren't smart enough to run it, but that is besides the point). But considering the supposed "cost savings" behind open source, the fact that many will apparently need outside help to get stuff working seems to negate that benefit pretty quickly. This seems to be an even bigger deal since it has been my experience that for bigger companies, once they get services around customized solutions, those services rarely leave and turn into an ongoing cost. Again, a broad brush but there is a reason you see legions of IBM consultants at so many large customers. ;-)

If for no other reason that it would seem to keep dev jobs in the US, maybe its not all a bad thing, however.