Let us not forget that a number of significant Internet protocols are
based on open-source work (though not always called that).
We can start with the early TCP/IP reference implementations. And then
there's the web - HTTP pretty much co-evolved with early browsers & daemons.
Isn't the issue more one of underlying design philosophy & intent?
Which comes first - the architecture & the protocol or the software?
Personally, I don't think it's an issue of the IETF "building on top of
Open Source technology," it's a matter of educating developers to think
in terms of protocol architectures & standards. (Something that I think
we, as network & protocol developers have woefully failed to do - and
that our professional organizations, like ISOC, should be doing more of.)
Miles Fidelman
--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra