What Impact Will Opensource And Other Free Software Have On Paid Software Engineer’s Employment?

The opensource model has many paid software engineers. Mature projects are commercialized typically by selling support packages. Good examples are RedHat, SugarCRM etc…
Opensource is a good way to get big projects from idea to completion. Participating in an opensource project will typically improve your skills and open you up to new opportunities.
Software developers only need to start worrying when software languages are easier to use. Meaning that end users can start developing software on their own. The process has been very slow. To give you and idea as to the timeline there were 4 GL languages in the 1980′s and still to this day they aren’t any easier to use. The engineers have too much invested in archaic languages so it will be many years before you need to worry, and by that time their will be fewer developers to compete with for jobs.
That’s what my crystal ball is telling me anyway.

Open Source packages can provide a variety of paid opportunities for software engineers and consultants.
As part of my consulting practice, GARA Systems, I am often paid to implement and sometimes maintain open software.
Some companies “commercialize” open source packages by offering support and customization packages to end users.
The companies that publish open software often have paid editions or support offers. RedHat and MySQL are examples of these.
Remember the “license fee” that is paid for commercial packages is only a portion of the cost of ownership of software. Companies using open source or commercial software still find that they need to pay for implementation, training, customization, support, etc. Many of these services need to be provided by qualified engineers and other techies.
When you here the term “Free” in connection with Open Source, it is usually means “Freedom”, not “No Cost”. That is, you can do pretty much what you want with the software.
As for India, I don’t expect open source will affect their employment levels much. Most of the software jobs in India are for technical support personnel and custom software developers. I don’t know of many commercial packages that are developed there. Microsoft, for example, continues to do most of their development in Redmond.