I have no knowledge of the methodology used to gather the data, but I thought this brief report on "Eclipse Demographics" was a very interesting read. It presents two graphic maps showing "Active Users" and "Active Markets" on a global basis. There's no surprise that North America and Europe are strong on both charts, but it was interesting to note that Asia is very strong in active users while being much less so in active markets. China, for example, represents almost 10% of the active users, but it comprises just one-tenth of one percent of the market share. This could be an important data point for many of us to consider as we ponder the future of our software industry. There are obviously a great many people willing to use free software, but it is not clear that seeding a market with free software will pave the road for any significant levels of traditional commercial software industry to follow. No doubt the major companies like IBM, Oracle, Microsoft and Sun have plans to capitalize on the Asian market with high-volume infrastructure contracts and other strategies. These may be a lot harder for the individual developer or the small to mid-sized development house to achieve. Hopefully we're all well past the painful lessons learned from the silly optimism of the "dot-bomb" era, and now we may need to have eyes wide open about the challenges of building our industry's future on the trendy strategy of giving almost everything away for free. Remember, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Somebody is going to pay, and so far it doesn't appear to be China.