open

The Server Virtualization Blog has a useful piece on the impact virtualization can have on open source business models.

...But with virtualization as an integral component of the distro (whether Xen, KVM or one of the other open source virtualization technologies), Linux is only one (arguably the key) component of the stack, and when a different OSV?s product is virtualized on Linux (Windows, perhaps, or another open source OS), two new opportunities emerge: First, a Linux OSV can extend its value proposition to its customers by offering to Support other open source OSes virtualized; and second, by adding to their offerings the requisite closed source add-ons such as the Novell Windows Driver Pack for closed source OSes, the distros can artfully deliver high value mixed-source offerings that "price to value," and protect themselves from the kind of discounting attack that Oracle used on Red Hat.… Read more

In every company - open source or proprietary - the executives get the credit (and blame). I've always found this frustrating, and particularly now that I wear an executive hat at Alfresco. I know from working with my own team that but for the talents of my team, I'd be a complete waste. (In fact, I am aware that the best thing I can do is hire exceptional people. If I do that well, I (that is, my team) will deliver.)

All of which made me want to solicit the executives of various open source companies for the … Read more

Last week The Open Road caught up with Justin Steinman @ Novell and Mike Olson @ Oracle to discover how open source factors into these companies' businesses. This time, we're switching gears a bit to talk with a company that sells services around software - both open source and proprietary - rather than a software company.

Being familiar with the interesting open source work happening at SAIC, I decided to talk with two members of its Open Source Community of Practice: Ryan Brunton, a developer within SAIC's Open Source Community of Practice, and Wayne Waddoups, vice president of Strategy, SAIC Office of Technology. SAIC has long worked with projects like Linux and MySQL, but it's the cutting edge work it's doing with open source applications and infrastructure that caught my eye. More to the point, and more to Wayne's and Ryan's response, I wanted to know how open source helps SAIC build its business.

Just as enterprise software vendors have their P&Ls tied to proprietary software (making adoption of open source more difficult than it otherwise would be), so, too, do tier-one systems integrators like SAIC, Accenture, etc. How does SAIC view open source, given revenues of $8.2 billion that might well point it back to proprietary software?

Wayne and Ryan write:… Read more

Glyn Moody has an excellent article in Redmond Magazine on open source and interoperability. As it turns out, sometimes it takes Microsoft to notify the open-source community that for all the great things we've done, we sometimes fall short. One area that open source had traditionally failed in was in stitching together an end-to-end solution, as Nick McGrath (a friend and a wonderful person) suggests:

Of all the accusations Microsoft has leveled over the years against open source, perhaps the least contentious is that it lacks the tight integration offered by Microsoft's own products. As Nick McGrath, director of platform strategy for Microsoft in the United Kingdom, puts it: "One of the problems I've seen with open-source software is it doesn't take on board some of the issues that customers have around interoperability and integration. Open-source projects tend to offer a very specific point solution."

This statement has become less true over time, though it's still the case that there is no one open-source vendor providing seamless interoperability between disparate pieces of enterprise software (in the way that Oracle and Microsoft do or attempt to do). My bet is on Red Hat to become that company over time, but in the meantime, we're not there yet.… Read more

After 18 months of revision, the Free Software Foundation has released version 3 of the General Public License (GPL).

The license is both a legal foundation and a manifesto of the free and open-source programming movement. Not all are fully happy with the new version though, including Linux leader Linus Torvalds.

The text of the new license can be read on the FSF's GNU Project Web page.

The new license is geared to adjust to changes in the software industry that have arisen in the 16 years since GPL 2 was released. One of the biggest changes: the free … Read more

Matthew Aslett is highlighting four open source startups to watch: Aptar, GravityZoo, Loopfuse, and Untangle. I've talked about Loopfuse and Untangle before, but Aptar and GravityZoo are news to me.

That's one of the great things about the commercial open source ecosystem right now. People can complain that there aren't enough (public) examples of success yet, but one of the great examples of general commercial open source success is that there are so many new companies getting funded and/or getting traction. This is a vibrant, growing ecosystem.

Growing in breadth, but also growing in depth.… Read more

A week or so ago I mentioned that I'd be running an "Open Source @" series of posts, and try to capture the work that various large enterprises are doing with open source. Being large enterprises, it has taken a bit longer to collect these than I would have liked, but we now have a critical mass and can move forward.

Today we're profiling Oracle. I have been harshly critical of Oracle in the past, and yet I continue to hold the company in high esteem. Oracle is one of the few winners in the proprietary "battle of the ecosystems." I do business with a wide range of Global 2000 businesses, and I see Oracle all over. I can't say the same of several of Oracle's competitors.

I asked Mike Olson, formerly the CEO of Sleepycat and currently vice president of Embedded Technologies at Oracle, to comment on the state of open source at the company. How can a company so dependent on revenues from proprietary software forge ahead into open source?

Over to you, Mike....

First off, thanks to Matt for dreaming up this series of posts, and for inviting me to participate. He and I haven't always seen eye to eye, but I like him and I enjoy our arguments.… Read more

In yet another sign that Adobe is quickly getting the "open" message, as Stephen Shankland reports. It's not open source, but it's further momentum on that road within a company that is already displaying a marked propensity to go open.

Think about what happens if Adobe truly moves toward open source. Not necessarily in its consumer-side products today, but in its enterprise business. Here's a company with a tremendously broad reach on the desktop. Adobe could be a huge disruption for the enterprise and the consumer world if it were to extend its reach even further through an open source distribution and development methodology. Lightroom, as noted, is just one more step down this path:… Read more

We're approaching the end of our Open Source CEO Series, but there are a few more executives that I'd still like to profile here. One is Pete Childers, CEO of Zmanda. Pete and I got to know each other through Red Hat's RHX, which he led until he left Red Hat to join Zmanda. He's a very thoughtful person with great insight into open source, having helped to build the world's most successful open source company, and to create one of the industry's biggest open source businesses...within Red Hat.

In this nineteenth installment of the Open Source CEO Series, I caught up with Pete to get his thoughts on open source, and the difference between his old role at Red Hat and his new role at Zmanda. Pete is one of the open source world's savviest executives on the force of the Internet, which comes through here.

Name, position, and company of executive Pete Childers, CEO, Zmanda, leader in open source storage solutions.… Read more