generations of software. Here is my argument in a nutshell: Hadoop is neither a community-based open source project like Linux or Drupal nor a commercial open core company like Alfresco, or JBoss. Instead it is a strange hybrid that has some significant disadvantages. Hadoop is rising to prominence in an era of ubiquitous cloud computing and proven models for Software-as-a-Service, which dilute the power of some of the traditional models for commercializing open source. In my view, these differences are important and represent a threat to Hadoop's success. To put it simply: Can Hadoop survive its weird beginning? A Simple Answer: Yes, Hadoop will Survive The simplest answer to this question is, yes, of course Hadoop as a project will survive. It has too much to offer to fade away. But I think this is a glib answer that ignores the power of the threats I detail below. To be more precise, I'm not arguing that the idea of having a scalable repository for arbitrary big data and a technique for distributing processing over it are under threat. No, these capabilities are core to the computing landscape already and will only become more adopted. My question is simply this: Is Hadoop Facebook or is it Friendster? Will the ultimate realization of the powerful ideas it has introduced to the world be implemented in the form that Hadoop has created, or will a new way of making those ideas work emerge? Hadoop is Breaking New Ground in Open Source Development I