May 2nd, 2008
Will market reject Sun's open source vision?
Matt asks today whether open source will save Sun Microsystems.
Good question. But it depends on what we mean by open source. (Copies of this lovely poster are for sale at eBay.) And what we mean by saving.
As I noted here in January, while Sun sits at the bottom of the open source incline, having embraced GPL licensing, it actually sits near the top of the open source development incline.
This means Sun’s projects are essentially proprietary efforts. Sun decides the strategy, Sun controls the code releases. Sun “owns” mySQL, and takes that ownership seriously.
So when you contribute to one of these projects, you give code to Sun. When you contribute bug fixes, they go to Sun. Doing beta testing? The benefits are Sun’s.
Not all open source projects are so proprietary. Eclipse is not owned by any one of its stakeholders. While Drupal now has a commercial arm, its community has the largest say in its future.
People aren’t stupid. Opening source code to scrutiny and editing is just one way a company can give back. It can also embrace its community as a true partner, even the leader of its development effort.
I have seen no evidence Sun has done any of this. While Jonathan Schwartz tells a compliant media Sun is leading the open source revolution, I really believe that’s more spin than reality.
His role reminds me more of a scene from Chaplin’s classic film Modern Times. (We’re now further removed in time from the Chaplin “Little Tramp” IBM PC ads than Modern Times was from Chaplins’ own 1914 movie debut.)
It’s the scene where a red flag falls off a truckload of lumber. The tramp picks it up, waves it toward the truck, and suddenly this Communist parade comes up behind him, and he appears to be leading it.
If Mr. Schwartz wishes to lead the open source parade, then let him lead it and embrace its development model. Waving a flag alone won’t do it.
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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| 05/02/08
