Does anyone use COTS anymore, or are the a Failed Dream? Fred Brooks favoured them...
Although, I have seen Service Components [Architecture] (SCA) - where you assemble an app by integrating web-services in the cloud. eg. IBM acquired Cast Iron Systems 4 months ago. And with everything having an API, mashups, and tools like Yahoo pipes, maybe the 10's version of COTS is already here?
You're OT, but yes, nearly all software today is components, but not in that rigid, anthropomorphized, Actor-model fashion. Instead, we have stuff we can use/import/require at compile time, or bundle with our own software.
I would say that the Apache Foundation's work is all about offering Free "off the shelf" components; see Apache Commons, for example.
