We're living misleading times

I was unpleasantly surprised these days by the Financial Times due to the publication of Jonathan Schwarz’s anthem to Open Source software as the engine driving a “tidal wave of wealth creation” (Digital Business Supplement, Wednesday 17 September). You can read the whole text here.

As a Romanian entrepreneur who built and developed his own IT company in the past 10 years, I am shocked to see a prestigious institution like the FT allowing for publication a blunt, insidious, and totally misleading LIE like “companies across […] eastern Europe, […] are predominantly using open source software to create enormous wealth”. According to my understanding, such a statement should be endorsed by some kind of statistics or at least a quote from a widely accepted study. Unfortunately, it is not, and the reason for this is simple: the real situation in Eastern Europe is radically different and even if you’re as ecstatic as Jonathan Schwartz is, it’s impossible to invent something that does not exist.