The secret to Red Hat's success
,----[ Quote ]
| How can Red Hat stay in business when CentOS is giving away Red Hat code for
| free?
|
| The answer is because Red Hat is also giving away Red Hat code for free.
|
| [...]
|
| CentOS stands a good chance of putting downward pressure on the price of
| RHEL, but only as one part of the commodification of operating systems and
| other software. Hardware has already been through this phase, and as the
| process works its way through the software stack, it will be helped by the
| growing trend to virtualization.
`----
http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget.com/expert/KnowledgebaseAnswer/0,289625,sid39_gci1283663_tax305254,00.html
http://tinyurl.com/2sge6j
“Hybrid” Source, MySQL, and the Economics of Open Source
,----[ Quote ]
| As is typical, I’m late with the news, but given that we’re still getting
| inquiries on the subject, it’s worth taking a look at the MySQL Workbench
| news. Particularly in light of the fact that it’s closely tied to another
| frequent line of questioning from our clients: hybrid source. In an effort to
| kill the proverbial two birds, then, let’s indulge in a quick Q&A on the
| subject.
`----
http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2007/12/03/mysql_workbench/
Related:
An interview with Matt Asay
,----[ Quote ]
| Glyn Moody talked to him about why he became a GPL believer and how to create
| a billion-dollar revenue open source company.
`----
http://lwn.net/Articles/240877/#Comments
So what is open source code?
,----[ Quote ]
| The drawbacks are that there is not as much money in open source development.
| Money can be made, but it is easier for the big companies to close things up,
| get people hooked on their code, then charge them lots for the next upgrade
| to whatever the big company decides to give them. You can make money from
| open source, and one way is to do like Terra Soft Solutions (TSS) is doing.
| Pre installing Linux onto PS3 can make money. Releasing an entire operating
| system to the paying customers first before releasing it to the public a few
| weeks later can make money. Selling support can make money. Selling
| supercomputer services can make money. Did I mention that a variant of Yellow
| Dog Linux (YDL) is used by TSS to build supercomputers?
`----
http://blogs.ydl.net/onefang/2007/06/22/so-what-is-open-source-code/
Top Five Open Source Business Models You Never Heard Of
,----[ Quote ]
| The art of “selling” or generating revenue from open source is a topic of
| growing importance as open source takes a larger piece of the software
| business. In the past, open source revenue has largely been associated with
| services marketed by many top tier Linux companies: Support, middleware
| solutions, etc.
`----
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/3686616
How to make money by giving stuff away
,----[ Quote ]
| RedHat CFO Charlie Peters said this week that the key to success
| is to "convince customers of the value of moving from free to paid".
| Largely because JBoss is a free download, an estimated 11 million
| people are using it. Now if they can move even a small fraction of
| those customers into the paying column, that will be a significant
| source of revenue.
|
| [...]
|
| There is something of a snowball effect here. As you bring more
| people into your "community", the community becomes more attractive
| (because of new content, shared knowledge, buzz, etc.), which drives
| even more people in.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Burnette/?p=202
How to use open source as a power marketing tool
,----[ Quote ]
| There are a number of ways traditional software vendors can participate
| in the open source software community. They circulate around open
| source licenses, such as the GNU General Public License (GPL), and
| how to leverage open source software as a marketing tool.
|
| [...]
|
| Traditional software vendors need to recognize the shift taking place
| is driven not only by successful open source projects, but also by the
| rapid and broad adoption of open source in the customer marketplace. The
| numbers behind open source adoption are compelling. Linux in both the
| United States and Asia is the fastest growing operating system ever. As
| measured by hostnames, Netcraft reports that the Internet has grown 26.1
| percent over the past 12 months, over 67 percent of it served up by open
| source Apache servers.
`----
http://management.itmanagersjournal.com/management/04/06/24/2057239.shtml
|
|
