Ted Leung on the air
Ted Leung on the air: Open Source, Java, Python, and ...
Ted Leung on the air: Open Source, Java, Python, and ...
Sat, 05 Apr 2003
Open source and earning a living
Marc Canter is responding to the conversation on the Oregon Open Source bill:
[12:40] |
[computers/open_source] |
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TB |
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0 Comments |
This is why I think software should be paid for - based upon the end-user's behavior and usage patterns. If they simply dabble with the software, aren't dependent upon it or relish it - then DON'T expect them to pay. None of this 30 day free trial stuff. But as soon as they become dependent upon the functionality, fun or community aspects of the software - then it's a reasonable time to charge for it. That might be on a monthly basis, yearly or flat rate - one time charge. It's also reasonable to think that super-users will arise - those vocal proponents and advocates who start making demands for features. THOSE folks can get charged even more. I bet there are a LOT of those kind of Radio users. I bet they'd pay $100 or more for advanced versions of Radio - that the rest of us wouldn't even care about not receiving.I think that is one of the ways that good open source projects can pay their developers. In fact, if you look at how IBM is using open source, you'll see that this is exactly what is happening. Let's take Eclipse as an example, since it seems to be an Eclipse kind of day. The base Eclipse product is really, really good (see the last post). It's also open source / free. The Eclipse ecosystem contains a number of entities that are charging money for software. Instantiations and others are charging money for plugins. IBM itself has based its entire WebSphere Studio suite of development tools on top of the Eclipse core, and you better believe they are charging money for that.
I think that this is a viable way for people to make money doing open source. Open source a core part of the product and then charge money for value added stuff. Plugins, early access to new features, features that don't go into the open source core, custom features that only a few customers want, etc.
The idea of "super users" (who want the latest, greatest and most advanced features) as a revenue generating market is a good one. I know that I would fall into that category, and I'd be happy to pay money for this kind of arrangement for the apps that were critical to me. I'd also want some assurance that if the company / people doing this went out of business, that I could get the source code so that I wouldn't be orphaned.
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