Novell: It's Tough to Make Money with Open Source, "Keep it Proprietary"
Novell: It's Tough to Make Money with Open Source, "Keep it Proprietary"
Posted 11/20/2009 at 5:24am
| by Paul Lilly
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Despite the growing popularity of open source software, there's still the issue of how to make money with it. No easy task, warns Miguel de Icaza, Vice President of Novell, who also heads up the firm's open source Mono project.
"If your livelihood depends on the product that you're selling, until you can figure how you're going to make money on that thing, I say, keep it proprietary," de Icaza said.
The VP went on to say that it's "incredibly difficult" making an open source business. His remarks were in response to an audience member at the Microsoft PDC (Professional Developers Conference), who raised the question of making money via open source. The issue of making money by selling support also came up.
"You need to take those steps carefully in my opinion," de Icaza said. "And support, by the way, is a horrible business. I want to be writing code, and I want to be paid to write code."
The VP did note that if you're a young developer without a lot of obligations, like a family and tuition, then it's far easier to consider doing open source projects.
Image Credit: daveyost.com
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lovercathi
April 13, 2011 at 6:57am
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. Alex - cfds consultant.
RtDK
November 22, 2009 at 11:36am
I sympathize for the companies that put it all behind a single product ... er, no, wait. I don't. That wasn't exactly a smart business choice, was it? There will be free alternatives as long as there are computer enthusiasts (always). And, oddly enough, the free stuff is generally just as good or better than the paid versions. So, why would I want to pay for something I could just download hassle-free? If I need support, I'll go to a forum and deal with the issue on my own.
Sorry Icaza ... no sympathy from me. If you want to make money off your products, sell ad-space in 'em and give them away.
damicatz
November 21, 2009 at 5:32pm
De Icaza has demonstrated time and time again that is is nothing but a Microsoft shill. No one in the free software world takes him seriosly. I would disagree that "open source doesn't make money", Red Hat has made billions selling support.
bco135
July 23, 2010 at 7:40am
"Red Hat has made billions selling support"
They have made a lot of money. However if you want to use Red Hat software you have to buy support. "Joe home user" just can't go download Red Hat for free. For a novice consumer to use Red on their desktop it will cost $80.00 a year or for a workstation $220.00 to $300.00 a year, server..... My point is that you’re not getting Red Hat brand name for free. Fedora is Red Hat's free development version for Red Hat. Using Linux/Unix as a Enterprise solution can be just a expensive as using a pure Microsoft solution (most large companies are mixed platforms at the server level).
Anyways, I agree with De lcaza as a programmer I'm not working for free to contribute to Open Source (unless a company like Red Hat is paying me fair market value for my work).
Open Source Fan boys want something for nothing. Most open source fanboys are not programmers (unless they like working for free).
fullur
November 20, 2009 at 3:29pm
Support sucks as a money maker. If that is all you are selling people, it does not take them long to realize they don't need you because you aren't any good at it. Better to pay the part-time high-school student minimum wage and have him do a better job than the call-center in Mumbai(sp?) you pay $500+ per incident.
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