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Open source lets challengers compete against dominant incumbents and curbs monopoly power, as shown when Linux broke Microsoft's Windows monopoly and Android opened up the smartphone market before the iPhone could dominate it.

Historical examples like Linux and Android show open source acting as an equalizer that prevents any single company from monopolizing a market. ✦ AI generated

Kevin Xu (Interconnected, co-author) · Interconnects · 2026-06-19 · original ↗

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Linux, the open source operating system that now runs more than 90% of the world's cloud computing infrastructure, was the antidote to the Windows monopoly (so much so that former Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, called Linux "cancer"). Android, the open source mobile system, fostered a long string of competitive smartphones before Apple's iPhone could control the market.

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▦ Microsoft ✳ Android ✳ Linux ◉ Steve Ballmer

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In practice · 1

The open model landscape has shifted from being dominated by a handful of Chinese players a year ago to now featuring a much wider, more diverse set of niche companies from all over the world.the author · Interconnects · conf 60%

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supports → Washington's current wave of AI regulatory activity risks spilling over into regulating or banning open source AI, and that would be a grave mistake.Kevin Xu (Interconnected, co-author) · Interconnects supports → A layer should be open-sourced when it stands to benefit from network effects and third-party integrations — a competing open alternative will win out over a closed one in the long run.Matei Zaharia · Latent Space supports → Trying to slow or ban the open model ecosystem is futile, unsafe, and anti-freedom, because it would concentrate AI development among a select few and cut off outsiders' ability to adopt the technology.the author · Interconnects gives example → A layer should be open-sourced when it stands to benefit from network effects and third-party integrations — a competing open alternative will win out over a closed one in the long run.Matei Zaharia · Latent Space