[TriLUG] Can open source solutions be viable companies?

[Michael Mueller]

Well that's an interesting twist.  I like it.  

The small amount of research I've been able to do with ss7box going open 
source has been inconclusive.  I've asked my clients what they think.  They 
did not have a strong opinion.  They just wanted something that worked whose 
total cost of operation is in line with the risk of using the application.  
Try before buy with lots of hand holding seems to be the way to go.  I 
volunteer to give them the source but the clients don't really know what to 
do with it and they don't seem enthused about about learning what to do with 
it.  They understand that some form of compensation for the product will 
ensure future support.  They don't care what it is that they buy. ss7box is a 
purely commercial application.  There are no casual users that can contribute 
or get personal satisfaction from using it.  The ss7box application is in no 
way dependent on Linux or any OSS package.  With minor changes it  runs on 
Solaris.  I am discovering that there is something between OSS and CSS.  It 
is open to those that need it.  Since I've already been attacked by a CSS 
vendor's lawyer, I feel no need to make the source publicly available.  In 
the case of ss7box, OSS is the fertilizer for a new application that is still 
feeling around for the business model that will support it.  I expect that 
several business models will be used to more readily adapt to the users.

On another topic, Is that signature wise?  I didn't check it, but on second 
thought, if it were somewhere near Redmond?  Hmmmm.....

Mike

On Monday 01 July 2002 16:02, John Franklin reputedly wrote:
> On Monday, July 1, 2002, at 03:08 PM, Scott Chilcote wrote:
> > Give away the product and sell consulting?  Sell the documentation?
> > Sell boxed product but let anyone download it?  Sell 24-hour support?
> > Or even, sell a bare-bones version and cost-extra upgrades (but that's
> > stepping outside the lines).  Just try floating any of these concepts
> > past a purely profit-motivated management team that doesn't care what
> > kind of widget it's selling as long as the numbers look good.
>
> I find it strange that you - a geek/techie - are asked to present
> (bulletproof) business cases to management.  Asking you to do so is
> either foolish on their part or they're setting you up for a fall.
> After all, you would *never* ask them to recommend a server, nor to come
> up with a security model for a distributed application, nor to even
> install a simple 100Base-T switch.  Do they really believe that geeks
> have such expertise in profit/loss forcasts, the current momentum of the
> market, the latest polling numbers and a critical understanding of the
> companies direct and indirect competition that the geeks are the go-to
> guys for business plans?  Don't they have *teams* of marketing gurus,
> MBAs and pollsters to do that for them?
>
> Stick to the tech stuff.  When they ask you such things tell them, "If
> this is all you have, how do you think it should be marketed?"
>
> Ok.  Rant over.
>
> jf

-- 
Mike Mueller
www.ss7box.com