Enterprise open source Toolkit

In association with Network Liberation Movement

Story: What vendors really mean by 'open source'

Posted by: opnsrcguy (Monday 22 December 2008, 5:50 PM)

Incorrect

As someone who has been in open source for a number of years, I can tell you that you are very shortsighted on this one.

Open source, as indicated in the name, allows for open source code to the community. No play on words there. This source code is in its pre-compiled state. This means it is up to the community to do with it what it may. The company that represents the source code can provide the compiled version for free, for a charge, as part of a packaged service, and much more. This is why there are so many OSS licenses. Many open source companies offer support & consulting with these products, but in order for a company to stay afloat for a long time, they need to make money outside of consulting as this isn't a long-term revenue strategy.

Shareware is normally associated with tools, not products. There is a big difference here. Zip, was a shareware product for a long time, and it truthfully only has a single small function. New and better ways of compressing occurred, and now, it is a commercial tool at a very low price.

You see, open source is a business and distribution strategy. It provides methods for the ways a product is packaged, distributed, marketed, and even helps associate what type of price point at which you compete.

Each good open source company has 10s - 100s of partners in the product and services spaces, plus many more who use the technology without a formalized relationship. There are plenty of small organizations that make complete livings by implementing open source solutions. I am not sure how you talk about job loss here.

As a matter of fact, I have worked for a couple of companies in this space where companies left IBM, Oracle, etc. for open source companies and saved into the millions allowing employment to continue for many of its employees. Your assumptions are either incorrect or you are completely misinformed. Perhaps you either just purchased a large commercial offering or you represent one. No matter the case, open source is stronger than ever thanks to the current market, so you had better either embrace it or move out of the way.

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