Will the cloud help or hinder open source?

Widespread take-up of cloud-computing services could make the choice of software and operating systems less of an issue than it is today. But will that strengthen or weaken the position of open-source software, including Linux? That was the question posed to a group of experts — Linux International's Jon 'maddog' Hall, IBM's Linux advocate Bob Sutor, Professor John Darlington of Imperial College London, and Derek Kay of Deloitte MCS — at the recent Cloud Expo Europe conference in London.