July 18th, 2007
Blindly applying proprietary metrics to open source
I am constantly amused at how people try to apply the metrics of proprietary software to open source.
This can even happen within open source companies, as when Roy Russo of JBOSS writes on his blog that open source inherently leads to monopoly.
In fact every business model leads to monopoly, or something like it. This “climax state” can be disrupted by the monopolist getting lazy, or the government stepping in, but in a win-lose world someone, in the end, wins.
C|Net’s own Matt Asay thinks this is bound to happen more quickly with open source. “What new Linux vendor (or, rather, its would-be investors) wants to compete with Red Hat?” he asks.
Xandros, for one. They are doing well enough to acquire Scalix, and integrate its e-mail and calendaring functions with their server. (The illustration is part of their new product announcement.)
In doing this Xandros is not aiming squarely at Red Hat’s niche, enterprise Linux. They are placing a bet on the small business market.
We may ask what is Xandros acquiring? You don’t acquire the source code of an open source business. You acquire its book of business, its personnel and (perhaps) its liabilities.
My point is that open source, by its nature, changes a lot of rules. It changes the nature of competition, the nature of acquisition. It does not overthrow these rules, it twists them into new forms.
Be alert to the changes, and don’t assume the old rules apply in the exact same way to the new world.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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