September 28th, 2004
The Dell of open-source software?
Former Microsoft senior vice president Brad Silverberg and some ex-BEA executives are teaming up to launch an open-source company that aims to become the Dell of the software industry. With $3.5 million seed capital from Silverberg’s VC fund Ignition Partners and Index Ventures, the new company-called SourceLabs–will certify, test and distribute existing open-source software, and provide related services based on a subscription model. Byron Sebastian, former BEA vice president and general manager of WebLogic, is the founder and CEO of the company.
It’s easy to imagine a one-stop shop for open-source software components–you select what you want via a configurator that knows about hardware requirements and issues such as software and router conflicts, and SourceLabs delivers certified code and provides ongoing support services. It’s easy to imagine because that’s what many other companies, including the likes of IBM, Sun, Red Hat, Novell and others, will end up doing. Who knows, even Dell might take a crack at building integrating and testing open-source components to expand its services business.
The fledgling SourceLabs may be able to differentiate based on not having its own branded open-source products. According to the company’s credo: "We promise not to lock you in, ever. SourceLabs will not lock you into “our” technology. We compete and thrive by providing excellent service, not because of our ability to tie your applications to technology we control."
But, the company’s fortunes will mostly ride on how much better its maintenance and support will be compared to the competiton, rather on its vendor-neutral, we won’t lock you in, we don’t have a dog in this hunt, we aren’t religious about technology attitude.
