Open Office, Songbird and Identi.ca. All three of these services/applications have something in common. No, it’s not what each of them do… but rather what they represent. A simple clone.

Open Office – Microsoft Office 2003

Songbird – iTunes

Identica – Twitter

I am all about free alternatives, trust me on this fact… I am a poor teenager scrambling for a quarter. This does not mean I am going to sacrifice innovation for re-creation. There are many open source apps that simply clone the functionalism or simply the look of proprietary applications claiming innovation because they are open source. Wrong, quite the opposite.

Just because you opened up some code doesn’t mean anyone CARES. The consumer is all about flash, dazzle and speed. The newer the better… no matter what the price is. The iPhone/iPod are great examples of this.

The current open source applications that I have mentioned above are mimicking old designs and concepts. Open Office is still working with the same old task bars while Office 2007 has moved to the new and innovative ribbon interface. Songbird is the exact same as iTunes the main difference is leveraging a plug-in platform. Identi.ca is …

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