FOSS Supporters: Sharing Development Costs the 21st Century Way
January 11, 2015
In the good old days, proprietary software was funded by the company owning the technology, shareholders/investors, and “partners” sucked into the “pay to work with us” model perfected by outfits like IBM.
I read “Big Names Like Google Dominate Open Source Funding.” One of the points that I gleaned from the write up is that a handful of larger commercial firms support certain open source projects. The data are based on various records and incomplete data sets. Also the data presumably do not include statements from Eastern European open source contributors who are polishing their résumé or college professors working to create their own bit of financial heaven.
The article includes a graphic that identifies some of the big supporters of open source. There are some names I did not recognize like Credativ and 10gen. But there were a few that jumped out at me; namely, Google, IBM, and that bastion of management excellence, Hewlett Packard.
I formulate three thoughts after working through the admittedly flawed analysis included in Network World, a publication which I view with healthy skepticism.
First, with large companies funding open source projects, the cost of R&D has been pushed down and shared. This is good for big outfits who can get out of the business of supporting software that are essentially utilities.
Second, open source is less about community and more about getting folks jobs and opportunities to set up an “open source consulting services company.” When you take a look at LucidWorks (Really?), you see folks trying to emulate pure consulting firms. But open source search is just one example of this model of using “free stuff” to sell expensive engineering. This works on a small scale, but when you try to pump up a “free software” company to the size of RedHat, that taxes the management capabilities of some whizzy Silicon Valley types.
Third, open source does not always result in free and open source software. Consider IBM’s approach. By repackaging Lucene and attributing serious juju to search, the company hopes to build a $10 billion business in 48 to 60 months. Not gonna happen. IBM faces many challenges, but those infected with spreadsheet fever twiddle the numbers to create a fictional world. Is Google really free and open source? What about Google Earth? Is Hewlett Packard, bless its management heart, is not quite the model of open source goodness shareholders want.
No surprises in the write up, but the change in what once seemed like a good idea does not trouble Network World. Open source sounds great and offers a way out of massive, continuing investments in maintaining certain types of software. That money can be better used to create proprietary extensions that customers have to pay for.
Stephen E Arnold, January 11,2015
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