In this easy-to-follow guide, we're going to examine the commercial opportunities for open source software. We'll investigate the different ways of generating revenue from open source software and how to reduce development costs by using open source software in your development life cycle and how to select open source software technologies for building that next knockout product. On top of this we will also investigate how to gain access to national and international markets through using the open source marketing methodology.
Before we get started the first question you are probably asking is; why bother? According to Accenture Australia, using open source software as the basis of your development can cut your development time and budget by 50 percent. The open source testing and debugging methodologies have been shown to greatly reduce product development costs, and using open source software marketing and distribution channels can greatly increase the likelihood that your product reaches the broadest market possible, and levels the playing field with your larger, better- heeled competitors.
The next question many would be asking is; sure, but can you make profit from open source software? Let's get this straight from the start. Open source is commercial software. At no stage do open source licences preclude the commercial exploitation of the software. Open source licences are not anti-commercial, they are anti lock-in. This is good for users and can be used by you for marketing purposes. There have been free and open source vendors selling solutions in this space for over 15 years. Open source is not suddenly going 'commercial'; it always has been.
Services not licences
The open source revenue model is one based on a service revenue stream rather than a licence revenue stream. This fosters competition amongst vendors for any class of software. Most open source software is copyright, but released under licences which allow free re-distribution. It is this attribute which allows for the distinctive economic benefits that open source accrues. And it is this in turn which attracts a number of potential customers to consider using software which is sourced from smaller development houses. Customers who would have otherwise never considered your software.
Let's also take a whirlwind look at the industry side of the open source world. We know there are around two hundred Linux (and BSD etc.) open source platform vendors globally. These are firms which pool together hundreds of applications, placed on top of an open source operating system, marketed through a number of channels and via a number of different business and non-business models. Strong competition is evident in this space.
There are also several thousand open source products, solutions and service vendors, including perhaps 300 in Australia. If you'd like more information, visit OSIA.
Additionally, almost all major traditional ICT industry vendors now support open source software too. These range from tier- one hardware vendors through to numerous enterprise level ISVs. Many vendors of open source solutions also supply proprietary software. Open source software can be bundled with proprietary software, with no problems. Proprietary software can also be built with open source tools, be linked to many open source libraries and run on open source software.
Open source development and distribution models can increase the visibility of local software development as well as of individual programmers. Australia's market size has often meant that we do not have the potential to acquire sales and revenue momentum from the local market. We are thus at a disadvantage in comparison to US-based suppliers, who hit Australia's shores well-stocked with funding, flushed with success and momentum from their home market. Australians are great at tech smarts, but lousy at marketing. We often don't have the financial and managerial wherewithal to take software technology to the global market. If we can't, then why not let the open source distribution method do it for us?
Indeed, why not use open source to form the basis of our product in the first place, reducing our own efforts? To get the ball rolling, recall the Programmer's Maxim: good coders code, great coders reuse.
Before you write a single line of code, let's see how the open source world can help us by saving time and money. The reuse model is merely an extension to the well-accepted idea that developers will have put together a pretty decent toolbox of code chunks, application frameworks and possibly partially complete application husks. When you're planning a new application, it merely takes rummaging around in this toolbox and pulling out the components which more closely match your requirements.
Open source takes this to the logical conclusion, making the toolboxes of 500,000 other developers available to you.
Getting started
Visit the well-known open source code repositories such Freshmeat.net or SourceForge.net. Search to find projects which are thematically related to the kind of product you want to build. Next, start drilling down into the contestants. There may be only a handful or there may be dozens. Use your heuristic filtering sunglasses to help you whittle these down to two or three selections: Do they do the core of what you want? Are they written in programming languages you know? Are the projects active? Are they available under a licence which is commensurate with what you are trying to achieve?
Next, download the project which appears to have the most overlap with your intended product. Scope the code, audit it for quality, comments, structure and evenness. If it passes muster, you read through the documentation to determine if there's a section to jumpstart new developers into the complexities of the code base. Most of the good open source software projects have this, which is what enables them to become good open source projects.
Now, start making some mods, for example stylesheet changes, logo changes, form changes etc. You want to get a feel for how much time and effort would be involved to get up to speed with this code, and how much effort would be involved in adding any missing functionality your putative product may need, which this open source project lacks.
It's now up to you to determine if indeed utilising this codebase will get you to your intended destination faster than if you started from scratch. Bear in mind a few things however; many widely-used open source projects have seen successive iterations of quality and security feedback, loopsÃ,ÂÂCode being fixed and enhanced and security exploits being patched. If you start your project from scratch, it may be years before you reach a similar maturity level. Factor this cost in to your decision process too.
Do the right thing by the existing project community; make contact, alerting them to the fact that you intend to build a commercial application upon their codebase, but that you will comply with the licence they have stipulated for the project. Contact with the open source developer community isn't mandatory, just common courtesy.
Package it
Packaging your solution in a form downloadable via the Internet for no cost provides a friction-free manner for distributing your application, allowing you to establish your product's credentials and market presence. You can also provide a packaged version which includes printed manuals and CDs. This is for all those sites that do not like to use freely downloaded software off the Internet, but prefer a real, physical product. Price varies, as it's essentially a service charge. Say $100 to $500.
You could also consider building an appliance solution, constituted of preinstalled operating system, database, application server and your application on top. Price: $2k to $10k depending on the level of bundled support. With all your product options, price them in the market sweet spot, to maximise attention and gain as many quick sales as you can.
Marketing your offering
What does it take for your product to get noticed? Obviously, by using open source attributes when marketing your product: Market the fact that you give your customers the complete source code to the system; market the fact that the code does not have a use-by date or sunset clause. If you and your business collectively fall under a bus, your customers can continue to use and have third parties provide ongoing support. Leverage the fact that local business and government consumers are risk averse, and that you, unlike a group of coders in Iceland or Brazil who produced the original codebase, can indemnify your customers using your professional and product liability insurance; market the fact that you are local or regional and can provide same time zone business support.
By commercial support, I mean commercial support. Charge the customers $200 per hour for it, but make sure you deliver the goods. You should also play the perpetual code escrow card. Many potential customers of vertical business applications need to be guaranteed that they will not be left stranded when deploying a new line of business system.
This is one of the main reasons encountered when Australian firms have trouble competing against larger international players. The argument goes that buyers are unsure of smaller Australian firms' business longevity and worry about code escrow. Ensuring that potential customers have full access to the source code is a great way of nullifying this competitive disadvantage.
In short, open sourcing saves you many of the marketing and sales costs necessary in taking your application globally. If your product is good, and there is a global market for it, you have a far greater chance of reaching that market through open sourcing.
Achieving the same marketing reach using traditional means, would cost millionsââ,¬"money that few Australian developers have. News of good quality open source projects travels fast.
Paying the bills
But how do you make money? First up, support revenue. As soon as you can, establish mailing lists and discussion forums so that users of your software can help other users. This takes the load off your team. You will need to kickstart this community by providing technical support freely at first. Once momentum has been reached, provide no more free support. Instead, offer various paid support options, with credit card payments: per incident, quarterly and yearly. For business-grade vertical applications, this could be hundreds of dollars per incident or thousands of dollars per quarter.
Next up, provide installation, customisation and enhancement services. This is where the real money is. Show the market you are a serious commercial open source player. Whilst your code is indeed open source, and your users could extend it themselves, most businesses do not have the time nor the inclination to undertake this kind of activity; it's not their core business. Firms will instead turn to you.
Additionally, no one should know the code as well as you, and your time to build for extensions and any integration work will far exceed others' value delivery. All you need to do is capture just a small percentage of all those users who pulled down a free download and you can generate some real revenue with customisation work. And because any such resultant work can be open source too, you can slowly build upon the functionality of your product, thus attracting more users.
Finally, you can make money by re-licencing. Just because you licence your software under an open source licence, doesn't mean you can't also licence it under non-open source terms as well. For various tactical reasons, the best open source licence to use for this purpose is the General Public Licence (GPL). This approach works especially well for libraries and for products which you could classify as 'engines', such as computing engines (scientific and engineering), database or transactional engines. By using the GPL, anyone who links to your engine or library and plans to redistribute that combination as a total product must also licence their own IP under the GPL.
Many potential customers would prefer not to do this, which gives you the opportunity to sell them a version of your product which is not based on an open source licence. Are there issues with open source licences when reusing the code of others? Specifically, aren't we in trouble if we reuse open source code in our own projects? In most circumstances, no. Most developers in Australia are building bespoke software, which is not for redistribution beyond the client purchasing the service.
This model is compatible with all open source licences. If you or your client wants to redistribute modified binaries of GPL licenced products, you must also supply the source code to your modifications under the GPL.
If you use any of the BSD-like licences (Apache, MIT etc.) only attribution is needed within your derived modified binaries. You do not need to make available the source code to your modifications.
The proof
How do we know that it is possible for firm to develop a commercially viable support, training and custom extension business model based on open source? We have case studies.
Just consider the following success exemplars: JBoss, MySQL, eZ Publish, ZOPE and Trolltech. Let's drill down a little. MySQL AB in Sweden went from nothing to become a name brand in database technology in the space of seven years: over 4 million deployment sites worldwide, earning US$10 million in annual sales and growing. Similarly adept Australian software technology firms can do the same.
Open sourcing your code is not a panacea, nor is it guaranteed to work in every case, but then again, building and trying to sell closed-source apps carries no guarantee of success either, and the financial investment stakes therein are much, much higher.
As with all matters, you should undertake your own diligence and risk assessment, and decide based on careful consideration. At least with the rise of open source, you now have another path to a successful software business, perhaps one that may be better suited to your team and your strengths. Good luck!
1
Gavin Higgo - 03/06/05
Definitely food for thought..thanks
» Report offensive content
2
Foo Bar - 04/06/05
> Just consider the following success exemplars: JBoss, MySQL, eZ Publish, ZOPE and Trolltech. Let’s drill down a little. MySQL AB in Sweden went from nothing to become a name brand in database technology in the space of seven years: over 4 million deployment sites worldwide, earning US$10 million in annual sales and growing. Similarly adept Australian software technology firms can do the same.
For every single one of those companies, there are an equal number that have failed: Loki, Corel are the most prominent but guys who have been slogging for Linux haven't gotten rich and successful - Daniel Robbins of Gentoo, Pat Volkerdink of Slackware, Ian Murdock of Debian, Mark Knopper of Knoppix, Arpi of Mplayer and many others who have made Linux what it is.
» Report offensive content
3
Sly Coder - 06/06/05
To 'Open Source Coder' posted above.
You say:
"For every single one of those companies, there are an equal number that have failed: Loki, Corel are the most prominent but guys who have been slogging for Linux haven't gotten rich and successful - Daniel Robbins of Gentoo, Pat Volkerdink of Slackware, Ian Murdock of Debian, Mark Knopper of Knoppix, Arpi of Mplayer and many others who have made Linux what it is."
A few observations.
Loki and Corel were not open source businesses. So, thanks for proving the point that you can make money and lose money in both the open source and closed source world.
Next. Some of the players you quote didn't set out to make money. They built codebases for p****ion, for the love of it, or for other professional reasons.
Lastly. Yes, you can try an open source business model and fail. But hey, guess what, you can do the same with closed source too. Most closed source software publishers go out of business too.
At least with open source, you didn't hock your existence to VCs or the bank. The cost of producing a solution with open source is far far far less than in the closed source space.
» Report offensive content
4
Sly Coder - 06/06/05
To 'Open Source Coder' posted above.
You say:
"For every single one of those companies, there are an equal number that have failed: Loki, Corel are the most prominent but guys who have been slogging for Linux haven't gotten rich and successful - Daniel Robbins of Gentoo, Pat Volkerdink of Slackware, Ian Murdock of Debian, Mark Knopper of Knoppix, Arpi of Mplayer and many others who have made Linux what it is."
A few observations.
Loki and Corel were not open source businesses. So, thanks for proving the point that you can make money and lose money in both the open source and closed source world.
Next. Some of the players you quote didn't set out to make money. They built codebases for p****ion, for the love of it, or for other professional reasons.
Lastly. Yes, you can try an open source business model and fail. But hey, guess what, you can do the same with closed source too. Most closed source software publishers go out of business too.
At least with open source, you didn't hock your existence to VCs or the bank. The cost of producing a solution with open source is far far far less than in the closed source space.
» Report offensive content
5
John M - 13/06/05
The most used database in the world makes 10$ million/year? I'm sorry but that is pocket change!
» Report offensive content
6
Bradley Ward - 14/06/05
I thought this was a very well written, useful, and timely article.
Does anyone know of a good book that would contain good advice about how to incubate a new open source project? I would like to read more on things like the pros and cons of various open source licenses, the pros and cons (and markets) of various open source repostories, ideas on attracting other developers, etc.
I have found a few things on the web, but it would be really great to buy a book about this process. If there is no book, some of you open source gurus should really get together and write one!
Thanks,
Brad
» Report offensive content
7
Russ - 30/01/06
This is a blog entitled "The Problem with Commercial Open Source". You may find it helpful if you are starting an new open source company or are a VC thinking about open source
http://www.thecxoreview.com/main/2006/01/the_problem_wit.html
» Report offensive content
8
Russ - 30/01/06
This is a blog entitled "The Problem with Commercial Open Source". You may find it helpful if you are starting an new open source company or are a VC thinking about open source
http://www.thecxoreview.com/main/2006/01/the_problem_wit.html
» Report offensive content
9
eIT - 02/08/06
Nice article, thanks
Making revenues from free & open source software is one of the most frequently asked questions these days. While there have been a few successful examples of companies (like MySQL, Red Hat etc) which are making money, I’d surmise that these are still very early days for open source revenue & profit models.
While open source as an operational paradigm certainly has been having exceptional success against proprietary and closed-software models in the recent past, in my opinion, a lot more thought need to be given and experimentations done before the emergence of viable revenue models for the free & open source models that can successfully compete with the current proprietary software revenue model. Some specifics of the business models are emerging fast, but it will take a few years for the market to test each of these out and hopefully, the fittest will survive.
A site that focuses exclusively on revenue models from free, open source software is Follars.com – Free, Open-source Dollars - http://www.follars.com !
Ec @ IT, Software Database @ http://www.eit.in
» Report offensive content
10
Paul Drewett - 25/09/06
A fantastic article.
I really enjoyed it and it has provided much food for thought.
Even though it is quite old now :-)
» Report offensive content
11
Nacho - 06/10/06
Hi,
first of all, congratulations for your post, even I am more than one year late ;-)
Secondly, I would like to answer to John M, even he probably does not check this discussion anymore:
1) The most used database in the world, at this moment, is MSSQL, then Oracle and then MySQL.
2) I think the latest numbers from MySQL point to 40 M$ income during 2005. Their income has been multiplying by two yearly during the last six years, quite promising figures in business world by the way, much better than their competition's
3) If you want to compare MySQL's income to other main database companies, you will have to include not only partners' income but also other companies' income based on their database. On one hand, MySQL has had a more efficient business point of view, based on a "I do what I do best, you do what you do best" approach with partners. On the other hand, they, together with Linux, Apache and PHP/Perl/Python,have allowed the LAMP stack, base for a throng of commercial applications, whose business revenue should also be compared with the one generated from MSSQL's applications and Oracle's ones
I am not trying to say MySQL's revenue is similar to its competition's, which is not. What I'm trying to say is that their business approach is more balanced, which is better in the long term.
» Report offensive content
12
Darryl - 23/10/06
so open source relies on making a product that required vast amounts of technical support, documentation, and tutorials. to allow Open Source vendors to provide a "PRODUCT HALO".
then its clear its not in their interest to manufacture, reliable, stable, easy to use, or easily configurable.
you produce a peice of crap, and charge through the NOSE for technical support.
so thats the open source model.
a CON man would call this scheme "BAIT AND SWITCH".
people want reliable, easy to use APPLICATIONS, not source code, or having to pay $200/hour to be shown how to use your (sorry someone elses) software.
how do we know YOUR version of this software is secure and that you have not put a "back door" into the code..
With closed source software, we know who to talk to if we find a problem with our applications. with open source, its a guess.
» Report offensive content
13
maa itgo - 07/11/06
I didin't understand what is the easiest way of making money in oz?
someone tell me!
» Report offensive content
14
zxc - 14/01/07
sdv
» Report offensive content
15
Chris_L - 04/02/07
OMG... (before I start, sorry my bad english)
Dear Darryl,
ok first at all, did you ever used an open source application before you posted your comment?
ok lets use the mysql example
lets say you are just a normal guy and you want to create a home-based web page witha simple database
you can download mysql for free, and find free manuals and tutorials on the web (or you can buy a book about mysql on a bookstore)
the you study the program (yeah, it is easy) and you can create an small, reliable database in a very short time
if you configure the server correctly (I repeat, IT IS EASY) it can work for months even years without a crash or hangup
that means a reliable system that dont requieres a lot of support, spend money or anything
with the time, you can learn more of mysql and create more complex systems
now,
what if you are not an small guy?
what if you are from a big corp?
what if you need to create a really big, sofisticated database system?
what if you need to alter the mysql core system for your company's needs?
of course, you can hire a team of programmers, but its a fact that when you need
certain services wich are not your busisness, its more easy to use OUTSOURCING
now, who would be more qualificated for the job than the creator of the system?
who would be the best to teach your employees than the creator of the system?
i don't know if you know it, but for corporations, tech support is really important
in contrast with home-users wich need tech-support only when something bad happens,
corps, need support when they need, i dont know, inovate their actual system using new ways
and methods to increase the productivty.
"people want reliable, easy to use APPLICATIONS, not source code, or having to pay $200/hour to be
shown how to use your (sorry someone elses) software."
of course, everyone wants that, but no matter if your source is open or closed, problems happen
and, in fact, open source alternatives are normaly more realiable
And, corporations are interested in paying a team to train their personal
ok this is really pathetic...
"how do we know YOUR version of this software is secure and that you have not put a "back door" into the code.."
well, because its OPEN! duh!
you cant insert code like that because people can read the code! if someone includes a backdoor in a opensourced program
YOU CAN SEE THE BACKDOOR CODE! what if you cant program, and therefore you don't understand the code?
well, you are no the only one who download it, and a LOT of programmers have download it the source
actually, if your programs is closed-source in that case, you can't know if theres a backdoor!
not without decompile it, but alas! decompile an closed-sourced program is illegal (it goes against the EULA)
thats the way spyware gets spread, thats the way sony installed that rootkit form their ORIGINAL cds to their costumers pcs
"With closed source software, we know who to talk to if we find a problem with our applications. with open source, its a guess."
you din't read about the forums? do you think you donwload the program and it doesn't include (atleats) the creator's web page and email?
I repeat, have you ever downloaded and worked with an open source tool?
I recommend you PHP and Mysql as an start.
go ahead, download them
don't worry, they are free ;)
» Report offensive content
16
jovelyn ajan - 09/03/07
pls help me to make a source code of annual sale using c programming
» Report offensive content
17
Michael - 09/03/07
I think Open Source is a great idea for users who don't want to spend any money. And the money side has to be the prime motivator for most users (or else they'd simply go with existing systems, and pay for them). Interesting that the way to make money is in sorting out problems (support), rather than selling a application of value (closed source).
» Report offensive content
18
Michael - 09/03/07
I think Open Source is a great idea for users who don't want to spend any money. And the money side has to be the prime motivator for most users (or else they'd simply go with existing systems, and pay for them). Interesting that the way to make money is in sorting out problems (support), rather than selling a application of value (closed source).
» Report offensive content
19
Ahmad Lafi - 22/03/07
Spreading the Open Source paradigm requires a universal law that should be applied everywhere. I know so many countries in the world which the copyright agreements are not yet governed by law (or at least not taken seriously)
http://ahmadlafi.blogspot.com
» Report offensive content
20
Md Ehtesham - 14/05/07
This world is really money minded.
» Report offensive content
21
Md Ehtesham - 14/05/07
This world is really money minded.
» Report offensive content
22
Md Ehtesham - 14/05/07
This world is really money minded.
» Report offensive content
23
Md Ehtesham - 14/05/07
This world is really money minded.
» Report offensive content
24
Ultra - 25/05/07
I like corn! It's tasty
» Report offensive content
25
Sagar Gupta - 12/07/07
Offers ASP/PHP Programmers hiring,SQL/MySQL development,software outsourcing, Offshore software development,PAYPAL Integration, Joomla Customization, Shopping Cart Customization, Script Instalation,Web Development and Web Design etc.
http://www.asiawebmedia.com
» Report offensive content
26
Jonathan - 25/10/07
Ironic that after all the discussions about the pros and cons of making it in our software world with open source or closed source - an indian outsource development company leaves an advertising post.
Point 1:
Could you imagine what would happen if Open Source doubled its levels of success and India joined in?
Could you imagine a world with not a few applications, but thousands of FREE software apps with India supporting services?
Count the jobs available in Your Country on your right hand.
Point 2
Imagine a street with a few kids washing cars on a saturday.
Suddenly one child starts washing cars for Free.
They all join in, the car owners are extatic.
But a few saturdays later, one or more kids give up, they would rather play football in the park than wash cars all day for free.
but there are still a few left, and they have to make money somehow. They cannot own up to their stupidity and theey really do love washing cars, so they have to INVENT new ways of making money. They cant charge for washing the cars anymore, because they already said they would do that for free. So they invent new things to charge for. They charge for the bucket, 10p more for type of wax, eveything but the 'thing' that actually costs the most - their time.
Point 3:
A lot of companies, look at open source, look at the design, look at the code. they realize how to do something or discover that their is a flaw. OR they learn how to copy some portions of the code, but not everything. they take bits and pieces and then they sell it for money. They learned alot from the guy who freely spent 6 weeks of his life, doing something he loves. This mans passion, comittment and efforts, are now sucked up in someone elses new shiny product making a fortune. He cant sue (he does things for free remember).
Point 4: Success - Open Source projects like MySQL, and many many, many others offer their software for free and have succeeded. They have offered their service models around it. They get a few cents/pennies from the CD covers they bought wholesale, not from the programming work put in, but from the support phone call, not for the real talented guys who wrote the neat algorithm.
So you ask where are the value people? Aah the developers have no value - they are free, the support ppl earn money, the secretary to the boss earns but the guys who slaved away writing the software. mmmm - If the guys who wrote it, start teh company and are part of it still then yes, they will earn, but often out of the 20 or more ppl who spent ages on teh software, only 1 or two (usually the founders) own it and use it. So the value of everyone else is gone.
It's like saying, lets not pay a doctor for his skill - lets pay the nurse who supports you after. the Doc can do it for free. and only the doc who opens/runs the whole hospital can earn money, the rest can contribute as a volunteer.
SUMMARY:
Open source has a place - the reall argument is not about open or closed source - its about solutions, markets, products, ROI.
if IBM, Apple and other large corporations got off their large wealthy behinds and actually started developing software that worked and that could atually compete with whats out there - whether it be open or closed - it would begin succeeding.
The are 2 main players - Microsoft vs Other Corporates
the others are claiming intellectual rebellion and solitude via open source projects. My advice, companies like google, compuware, ibm, apple etc should all start employing these obviously talented open soruce individuals and start paying them to make software bigger and better to actually compete - then teh consumer will get competitive pricing but the market wont get so devalued.
» Report offensive content
27
Jinx - 30/10/07
In regards to Jonathan's post... I think you have missed the point of Open Source.
"Point 1:
Could you imagine what would happen if Open Source doubled its levels of success and India joined in?
Could you imagine a world with not a few applications, but thousands of FREE software apps with India supporting services?
Count the jobs available in Your Country on your right hand."
The Open Source development model's main strengths is peer-reviewed code that is available to anyone across the world (via the Internet). If India had a sudden upsurge of Open Source Projects, I would argue this would only mean there would be more code to draw on and more opportunity to work with other developers in other countries to supply local regional markets (such as Australia). This would drive development costs down even more, allowing for more concentration to go into the support of your product/service.
"Point 2
Imagine a street with a few kids washing cars on a saturday.
Suddenly one child starts washing cars for Free.
They all join in, the car owners are extatic.
But a few saturdays later, one or more kids give up, they would rather play football in the park than wash cars all day for free.
but there are still a few left, and they have to make money somehow. They cannot own up to their stupidity and theey really do love washing cars, so they have to INVENT new ways of making money. They cant charge for washing the cars anymore, because they already said they would do that for free. So they invent new things to charge for. They charge for the bucket, 10p more for type of wax, eveything but the 'thing' that actually costs the most - their time."
Of course the Open Source development model would not apply to washing cars. Anymore than a Closed Source development model would. You're missing the point here. The approach is to reduce your development costs for a product by utilising an Open Source development approach, then sell a service. In the case of washing a car, you're already selling a service... so there is no point in doing this for free unless you have an alternate revenue stream.
"Point 3:
A lot of companies, look at open source, look at the design, look at the code. they realize how to do something or discover that their is a flaw. OR they learn how to copy some portions of the code, but not everything. they take bits and pieces and then they sell it for money. They learned alot from the guy who freely spent 6 weeks of his life, doing something he loves. This mans passion, comittment and efforts, are now sucked up in someone elses new shiny product making a fortune. He cant sue (he does things for free remember)."
I would have to agree, there is no doubt code theft in all forms of software development. However, this does not mean that Open Source developers are not protected under their Copyright license (most commonly the GPL). Fair enough, if their code is more readily available, it's going to be more likely to be ripped off... but tell me how long a company can go on ripping other people's code off? Once again, it comes down to service... who better to support the product than those who developed it?
"Point 4: Success - Open Source projects like MySQL, and many many, many others offer their software for free and have succeeded. They have offered their service models around it. They get a few cents/pennies from the CD covers they bought wholesale, not from the programming work put in, but from the support phone call, not for the real talented guys who wrote the neat algorithm.
So you ask where are the value people? Aah the developers have no value - they are free, the support ppl earn money, the secretary to the boss earns but the guys who slaved away writing the software. mmmm - If the guys who wrote it, start teh company and are part of it still then yes, they will earn, but often out of the 20 or more ppl who spent ages on teh software, only 1 or two (usually the founders) own it and use
» Report offensive content
28
Anonymous Coward - 24/12/07
Suppose an application that is made by many pieces that are not that technically complex by design so that is very easy to copy; its value is both in simplicity and in the originality of the idea. This application is made a free software and a big company copies, offers better support and more stability than what the original developer will be ever able to provide. Any decently trained developer of them could take his place. How does he earn ?
If stuff is complex, like a linux distribution or an application server, I believe that the value of services is big and open source model may work, but if something is simple but innovative ?
» Report offensive content
29
julien - 03/01/08
@Darryl:
"you produce a peice of crap, and charge through the NOSE for technical support."
Giving the fact that people will often look for reviews of an open source product before using it (even if it's free), I don't see the point for an open source entrepreneur to "produce a piece of crap" if he wants a lot of people to use it.
» Report offensive content
30
Anonymous Coward 29 - 26/01/08
No answers to my question 29 ?
» Report offensive content
31
Joel - 06/02/08
Anonymous Coward;
In the past there have been people that have stolen idea's and made millions. Some of the one's that come to mind are Edison, Bell and Ford. They were able to do this by having capital to manufacture the product. They were also able to gain control of the idea in a patent, restricting it from the inventor. This is not the case with open source. With larger products, you can use the advantage of a lower over-head to make more money that any company that would go big brand. As for the simple and innovative, use it to build your name. If everyone ends up using it, that has to be a credit to your name. There maybe be another way, but I am still looking into it.
» Report offensive content
32
Alexan - 12/02/08
What do guys have to say about companies starting off with open source code, and then over time introducing 'enterprise editions' that are not open source. ("Everyone else's code is open source, but not mine" strategy).
There is a bunch of those.
» Report offensive content
33
Alexan - 12/02/08
What do guys have to say about companies starting off with open source code, and then over time introducing 'enterprise editions' that are not open source. ("Everyone else's code is open source, but not mine" strategy).
There is a bunch of those.
» Report offensive content
34
ptc - 29/02/08
Nice article, Thanks.
SAAS (Software As A Service) built over open source code is **not** required to be made open source. The argument here is that open source agreement gives freedom to its user to use it for him/herself and for others. So in case of software service, the user is simply *using* the code (by running it on a server) and distributing its service and not the code.
Companies like Google, Yahoo have been utilizing open source code to build various web applications and making money without the requirement of making code of those services open. Any thought over this?
-ptc
http://excelalways.net
» Report offensive content
35
morikuma - 27/04/08
please link to this site.
http://morikuma.blogspot.com/
» Report offensive content
36
alejandro chavez - 16/05/08
Excellent Article, pur company is planing to change all our bussines to open source we a re in mexico and we hope to have succes VIVA OPEN SOURCE
Alejando chavez
http://www.miempresaenlinea.com
» Report offensive content
37
Jose Mondragon - 21/07/08
"Point 2
Imagine a street with a few kids washing cars on a saturday.
Suddenly one child starts washing cars for Free.
They all join in, the car owners are extatic.
But a few saturdays later, one or more kids give up, they would rather play football in the park than wash cars all day for free.
but there are still a few left, and they have to make money somehow. They cannot own up to their stupidity and theey really do love washing cars, so they have to INVENT new ways of making money. They cant charge for washing the cars anymore, because they already said they would do that for free. So they invent new things to charge for. They charge for the bucket, 10p more for type of wax, eveything but the 'thing' that actually costs the most - their time."
"Of course the Open Source development model would not apply to washing cars. Anymore than a Closed Source development model would. You're missing the point here. The approach is to reduce your development costs for a product by utilising an Open Source development approach, then sell a service. In the case of washing a car, you're already selling a service... so there is no point in doing this for free unless you have an alternate revenue stream."
Excellent point and answer but i think only sell services limits development
http://www.rioserver.com
Jose
» Report offensive content