Open source is lowering the value of U.S. software on a daily basis. Just this last week we had IBM giving DB2 away and VMWare giving away GSX, essentially lowering the value of IP for that level of transaction to $0. As the dominoes continue to fall, COTS companies will lay off more, just as IBM and Sun have been doing, and those attempting to survive on customizations alone will continue to see increased competition between themselves, forcing prices and wages to fall there as well. The U.S. will quickly lose its current technological lead, if it refuses to protect the value of its intellectual property. Open source is obviously one of the most significant threats we face, especially as it becomes closer and closer intertwined with the UN and DNC.
Support will continue to be a big biz. Open source doesn't mean that magically all operational difficulties get fixed.
VMWare's main competition for this has been Virtuozzo and Mircrosoft Virtual Server, both proprietary. Xen isn't quite there yet. IBM's DB2 teaser release is in response to both Microsoft's and Oracle's teaser versions of their latest software, all are efforts to win over developers by giving them free systems they can play with, but that can't really support a full enterprise (free DB2 is limited to 2-way SMP and 4 GB RAM). It also gets small companies that can run on small hardware into their system, so those companies will buy licenses when they grow.
Open source is obviously one of the most significant threats we face
Yes, and free soup kitchens are a threat to restaurants.