The future of library system software?

I've heard about Open Source Software at a couple of recent conferences but I didn't pay much attention to it. Sounded like shareware to me -- free to download, free to use. There's more to it as I recently learned in a meeting where library system software was discussed. And I expect to continue to hear about Open Source Software (OSS) right along with the commercial, proprietary counterparts. Imagine ... software developed in community, a product that is close to the user, a way to just get the software that is wanted. A very interesting model.