By Ian | 1 July, 2017
About
Open Source is about opening up the software so that the code is readable.
It is also about sharing what you have created so that others can modify and improve it.
In the old days
In the early days, companies were scared that software would be “stolen”, that invested money would be lost, that competitors would have a gain.
It is still possible to “steal” but the advantages have gained weight such as:
- Other parties can add improvements
- Users can modify it if they want for their own use
- Bugs can be detected faster and users can fix the bugs before the changes appear in the “released software”.
Making a living
One problem area which still exists is “How can the I, the developer, make money?” One solution is to offer premium support contracts for the software, another is customised development.
Angst
Some companies start off open source to create the market, then decide to only offer licensed software i.e. close it down, so as to force customers to give them money.
Yes, one can argument, rightly (from the Ego’s point of view), that if you - as a user - get something which is useful, you should be willing to compensate for it i.e. pay.
However from the provider mindset it is all about Angst:
- Angst of not getting enough,
- Angst of loosing out to others who might pinch their solution and offer something better.
I wonder if this Angst will backfire on them in the long run.
Support
I fully support “Open Source”. I come from the Angst world and it still pops up every now and again, but something in me says that it is the way for humanity.