Monday, November 07, 2005
Open source turns money-spinner
Open source code, written by a community of thousands of software developers, has always been made freely available. But there are ways of making money from it, as David Reid finds out in Amsterdam.
Perhaps that is why Amsterdam was chosen for a recent international get together of the open source movement.
The movement believes strongly that rather than being a trade secret, the source code of the software should be open for anyone to play with.
The result is software like the Linux operating system, created through collaboration that can involve thousands of programmers.
"Early on, when software was developed by computer scientists, just people working with computers, people passed around software because that was how you got computers to do things," explained Tim O'Reilly, the founder and CEO of computer information and publishing company O'Reilly Media.
"What we take as the shape of the software industry today, where software is shrink-wrapped and sold, is really a 20-year anomaly that started in the 1980s.
"Now we have companies like Microsoft as the avatars of that movement. But by the mid-80s there were already people saying 'we don't like this'."
And what they did not like was the idea of closing off information, especially information that others could build on.
Rich pickings
The open source movement does not object to making money. In fact, many of these programmers can afford to be choosy about how they earn.
| | We now have a world that has distribution costs of zero. We have just built a world-wide copying machine called the internet Karl Fogel, CollabNet |
Damian Conway, who trains programmers through his business Thoughtstream, said: "I think the most successful of those is definitely licensing support; providing the software and then saying: 'if you want to buy a support contract, here's what it will cost you on an ongoing basis'.
"That way people are getting something that they can work with free if they want to, but when they get into trouble they have backup and you make some money out of it."
With businesses keen on open source software and the support it offers, geek chic is smartening up. And the software, as well, is now designed by, but not necessarily for, programmers.
Open source might be more user friendly, but can it really go toe-to-toe with the giants in the market place?
Voluntary collaboration, or so the argument goes, is good for worthy imitation, but it takes money, and lots of it, to truly innovate.
But IBM's Chet Kapoor believes only some of that is true.
"If you look at the open source, open community aspects of open source, they are definitely bringing innovations to the market, solving problems that are not being solved by standardised software," he said.
"These are programmers building great technology to help their peers to build software to solve customer problems."
Business asset
One very recent open source innovation is Flock, a browser that integrates next-generation web technologies such as RSS, blogs, bookmarks and photo sharing.
In fact the fortunes of open source are closely tied to the internet, as well as the fact that copyright and intellectual property are looking difficult to guarantee. Open source, then, might be a model to flock around.
Karl Fogel, from software distributor CollabNet, said: "We now have a world that has distribution costs of zero. We have just built a world-wide copying machine called the internet.
"People who learn to use that copying machine for what it is are suddenly discovering that they can have a great deal of success in traditional business economic terms.
"Freedom is a business asset, under certain circumstances."
If open source really can make money for free, then it might make sense after all to harness the wisdom of the group.
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XBOX 360=Dreamcast 2.0?
23 eerie parallels between Xbox 360 and the Sega Dreamcast.
Ever since the first details of the Xbox 360 hit the web, gamers have drawn comparisons to Sega's ill-fated (yet still highly regarded) Dreamcast console. There are the obvious examples - the timing of the launches or the color of the hardware - but then there are a lot of not so obvious ones, too. As part of our Xbox 360 countdown, we've put together a list of our favorites. Noticed any others? Email us. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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But will the Xbox 360 go the way of the Dreamcast and have Microsoft abandon it a few years into its life cycle? Yeah right. Read on to the next page to find out what's different this time around.
10 reasons why the Xbox 360 will succeed where the Dreamcast failed. Sure, it's easy to come up with some parallels between the two platforms, but will the Xbox 360 go the way of the Dreamcast and have Microsoft abandon it a few years into its life cycle? Extremely unlikely. Microsoft is in a much different position than Sega was a few years ago. Here are some of the top reasons why the Xbox 360 will succeed where the Dreamcast failed.
Its predecessor was a complete failure.
Square, the most important publisher in Japan, never supported the console.
| EA, the most important publisher in the U.S., never supported the console. |
| Dreamcast was too early for broadband gaming; 56K didn't really cut it. |
| Wasn't backwards compatible. |
| Sorry Dreamcast fans, but the system's controller really wasn't that great. |
| Had tons of amazing games...but no Halo 3. |
| FFVIII released the same day as the Dreamcast. |
| Former president Bernie Stolar quit right before the system launched, sending a bad sign. |
| Had a limited budget of only $100 million to market the console. |
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| Following on the heels of the very popular Xbox. |
| Has the support of Square Enix starting with Final Fantasy XI. |
| Has the full support of EA, with a whole lineup of titles at launch. |
| Broadband penetration is getting higher and Xbox Live is unparalleled. |
| Backwards compatible (mostly). |
| Has a wireless pad that many claim may be the best controller ever made. |
| Will have Halo 3. And it will be huge. |
| Next to no competition at launch. |
| Solid executive team in J Allard, Robbie Bach, and Peter Moore. |
| Can, and will, spend whatever it takes to make the Xbox 360 a success. |
