May 7th, 2008
Sun's continuing open source problem
Despite its best efforts Sun Microsystems still has a big open source problem.
Commitment. (Affordable Wedding Bands sells rings in both gold and platinum.)
Any salesman is expecting a commitment from a buyer. But an open source salesman is expecting a deeper commitment. A commitment of time, even an emotional commitment.
Those commitments are necessary before you can expect someone else to write code for you, fix bugs for you, and test code they know is inferior.
The problem for Sun is this must be a two-way commitment.
When people read that Sun was even thinking of taking mySQL back, or listen to executives moan about the open source business model, it raises questions. Questions which all the blog posts in the world won’t answer.
It comes back to the problem I discussed yesterday. If you’re focused on the gold you’re not focused on the straw. These commitments of time and energy are the straw.
Anything which distracts Sun from that focus on the commitment its non-paying customers already have to it limits its chances of making money.
This is not a problem proprietary brands have. There the commitment is limited to a financial one, and both sides of the transaction understand the limits, which are specified in the contract.
But open source demands more than a financial commitment of its users. And if you want to earn that trust, you must be committed in turn. Committed to the open source process, and committed to the idea of commitment.
If that makes open source sound like a marriage, well it does. Every user who depends on a project is putting sweat equity into it. They feel as much a part of the project as its nominal sponsor.
Undestand that, commit to it, and you can make a success in open source. Focus only on the money and you don’t stand a chance.
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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| 05/08/08
