From COM to Common Component software’s 10-year journey toward ubiquity GREG OLSEN, COGHEAD Ten years ago, the term component software meant something relatively specific and concrete. A small number of software component frameworks more or less defined the concept for most people. Today, few terms in the software industry are less precise than component software. There are now many different forms of software componentry for many different purposes. The technologies and methodologies of 10 years ago have evolved in fundamental ways and have been joined by an explosion of new technologies and approaches that have redefined our previously held notions of component software. An Amazon search for the term yields more than 500 titles. Countless companies and open source projects use component software in describing what they do. Any summary or historical overview of the subject of component software rightfully belongs in a multivolume book. This article, then, simply looks at the highlights of how the concept of component software has evolved, and what we might expect in the future.