Sending the penguins out with a hot foot

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I agree

The bottom line is all that matters in business, and open-source's only real revenue stream is support contracts. Once those streams rise to a level that looks promising to larger companies then they will offer support and drive out less competitive offerings.

OSS's fundamental drawback is that once it becomes attractive to proprietary software companies as a revenue stream then they have the resources to realize the stream even if they have to take a hit in the near-term. This means that the company whose primary business is support cannot compete and will go away.

Also the OSS "community" is quick to break-off support for a project they feel is being too capitalized.

One question I have is:
If you get software for free and purchase a support contract and if the support contract costs more than the comperable proprietary software is it worth it?

In my mind if software needs support then the software might not be as good as it should be; therefore, why would anyone want the software or want to contribute to the software.

I think that OSS is potentially very powerful, but also a house of cards. If a project is very useful and cool then there will be many contributors, but if there are relatively no flaws with the project then there will be very little in the way of support contracts. This lack of contracts will deter larger proprietary companies, but will also subject the project to plundering by a larger company that seeks to capitalize it.

In reality larger platform projects become so complex that support contracts become a revenue stream thus creating at least some barrier to plundering, but successful OSS projects become their own worst enemy due to their success. Business wants someone to go to if they encounter issues with the OSS, even a small issue could cost millions of $$ per day, but if that is the only issue and no one is there to support it right away then that is a problem.

Posted by: THEE WOLF   Posted on: 11/27/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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