"asj" <kalim1998@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1149904515.138965.42820@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> I've never really understood what was so great about the open source
> ecosystem model...it doesn't make sense because i see no positives
> about it except for one thing - the ability to create extremely complex
> apps with less problems because of the tons of people you can get to
> work on it on the cheap. Unfortunately, 99.999999% of open source
> projects don't fit this optimum as there is no monetary motivation for
> most projects.
You should find a couple of the _successful_ open source venture capitalists
and listen to what they have to say. I read an article a while back by one
such person who had three Cs of open source analysis: he looked for
Commodity, Community, and Cushion. To be financially successful, he argued,
all three Cs are required. It needs to be a Commodity product since so few
people are going to pay for the product or for support, and it had better
fit into existing businesses with minimal modification to the business or
the software. There better be a significant and dedicated Community, since
open source companies don't have the resources to do development and support
like a traditional software company. Last, it needs a serious price Cushion.
Open source can't compete with low-priced commercial software because there
isn't enough financial incentive, but a company like MySQL can compete quite
nicely with a company like Oracle.
-- Mike --
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