[TriLUG] Can open source solutions be viable companies?

[Vestal, Roy L.]

Oh ThunderBear, you contrarian, you! ;)

-----Original Message-----
From: Thunder Bear [mailto:thunderbear at yonderway.com] 
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2002 10:16 AM
To: trilug at trilug.org
Subject: Re: [TriLUG] Can open source solutions be viable companies?


On Fri, 2002-06-28 at 08:48, Vestal, Roy L. wrote:

> Question to me:
> "Do you have pointers to info on how open-source solutions can still 
> be viable companies.  There is a big debate in the bioinformatics 
> community about this, and I thought you might have some info."

I better get ready to dodge some tomatoes here.

I'm not convinced that it is wise to build a business model that uses Open
Source as the focal point.

Many companies have tried in the last few years, and most have failed. 
I even question that Red Hat has been able to make much money off of their
open source products.  Remember, they've made a lot of acquisitions and some
of those acquisitions may possibly be responsible for the bulk of revenue.

"Open Source" is more attractive to developers and hardcore geeks than it is
to your average joe on the street.  What is an architect going to do with
the kernel source?  Nothing.  Maybe compile it once with a lot of
handholding.  The focus on Open Source IMHO has very little market appeal.
It's a tough sell.

Now open sourcing your software can be the responsible thing to do, and it
can help to rally geek support for your product which can help to sell it
when geeks recommend to their friends and clients to use your product.  But
your business model will still have to be based on a proven model in order
to be viable after the VC money dries up.

I think IBM has stumbled on a good hybrid solution, and if it pans out for
them maybe we will see broader support of an Open Source development model
there.  Currently only a few products that I am aware of are open source
there, and they are products that already existed that IBM jumped in on
(except for jikes which I haven't heard anything about in a long time, and
postfix which is not maintained by IBM).  There may be others.  But  I doubt
IBM would be involved in these projects at all if they weren't making money
off of them with their consulting division, IBM Global Services (which was
making money hand over fist BEFORE they dabbled in open source).

Remember the anecdotal story about how RMS got all fired up and started the
FSF?  IIRC it was all over a printer driver more or less, wasn't it?  Well
that is a good example.  Go ahead, sell printers.  Sell lots of printers.
Make your money there.  Open up the source to the drivers.  The few
customers that can do anything with that will be very happy, and you might
even get some useful patches back.  The geek community would likely rally
around that particular manufacturer.

Anyway I have my wife looking over my shoulder, giving me the evil eye. 
I have to get going.  Sorry I won't be able to participate in the debate
that this will likely start.  Maybe some late replies from me in a week?

-- 
-=[*Thunder Bear*]=-
+[Upchuckee Nation]+
"TRILUG, Free as in Beer."

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