Novell: Fighting Microsoft's FUD machine

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RE: I still don't get the OS business model

Categorizing Open Source Software (OSS) advocates as socialists in nature is just plain silly. If anything the OSS industry promotes jobs and business growth. Some people and companies understand it, and other ones probably never will.

If you want to make lots of money with Linux, start a company that is service-oriented: Offer training, integration, customization, development, consulting, etc. The revenue comes from the services offered, not the operating system or GPL software.

Local TV stations get their revenue in much the same way: They give their broadcasts away to consumers for free, and provide services to advertisers. It is a pretty effective model. OSS works even better.

It is true that OSS isn't for everyone. Some people still require the warm-fuzzy feeling that a billion dollar corporation will always be there to make promises and collect their money in a timely manner. Let me emphasize "make promises": Try to integrate MS Solomon into your company...better prepare yourself for sticker-shock, busted modules out-of-the-box, downtime, and angry customers.

I think that Microsoft software is often overdeveloped and riddled with bugs...which would be fine by me if I didn't have to pay for it through "software assurance", "per-seat licensing", "per-processor licesing", "after hours support", and more powerful hardware to support features I don't want to use.

Probably one good thing that came out of the dot.com bubble burst is that many companies started paying closer attention to their soft and hard costs for their IT...and many of them have come to the conclusion that they have been way-over-charged!

Posted by: ehausig   Posted on: 06/24/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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