Without a doubt, the topic wasn't on the official list of conference tracks at LinuxWorld OpenSolutions Summit 2007. But among IT managers and developers who braved icy winds and snow to trek to the two-day show in New York City, talk was in the air over whether software emerging from the open source tradition is really any better than other software.

In casual hallway conversations, and even during formal presentations, some expressed skepticism over certain software offerings.

"It seems to me that a lot of the software people think of as 'open source' isn't truly open source," said Kenneth Dombrowski, a Web site developer attending the show.

Dombrowski was referring to a movement among some vendors to provide not just free open source software, but commercial "hybrid" products mixing open source with proprietary components.

"There's been far too much of that kind of thing lately, in my opinion," the developer told LinuxPlanet.

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