Comments on: Software Companies Resorting to Open Source More and More

By: veena

veena — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 06:33:06 +0000

nice

By: Ben

Ben — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:36:36 +0000

An open source -like business model has always been a gamble at best. Adopters of Java weren’t driven to upgrade to a Sun server. But, if developing your product in an open source environment helps it become what everyone wants, rather than what you think they want, then you may have a chance to sell further implementations or upgrades that you have developed yourself.

Open source is a great way to advance a technology without one person or entity taking all of the burden of development.

By: William L.

William L. — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 03:27:26 +0000

I wouldn’t necessarily say that these vendors are “discovering” open source. I think it’s more a reaction to the economy.

The quotes from the article clearly show a great deal of skepticism and uncertainty about the idea, which leads me to believe they’re pulling all the strings in reaction to the economy. I’m assuming once times get better many of these will resort back to their old selling ways.

I think it’s the right strings though. There’s a lot of upsell to taking an approach like this and getting the most mileage out of time, money and resources spent. Open source is a great way to “virally market” your products and services when dollars are tight, or I guess in your guy’s case, even when it’s not.

By: Martin Schneider

Martin Schneider — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:31:56 +0000

Colin…I see it this way. Commercial open source companies like Sugar have proven that this is a great manufacturing model, and these old-school firms are “discovering” the value of open source – not “resorting” to open source. I think they “get it” as a competitive advantage, not as a way to keep the lights on…