The Simple Economics of Open Source

[Raffael Cavallaro]

In article <vndya62ykbi.fsf at camelot-new.ccs.neu.edu>, Justin Sheehy 
<dworkin at ccs.neu.edu> wrote:

>You mean like BSD/OS, from BSDI?  
>
>It happened 9 years ago, and they've been selling it ever since.

Yeah, and BSDI is just tearing up the software world. BSDI sells 
*support* not software, because the software they sell is essentially 
interchangable with the free BSD variants. BSDI have *themselves* 
recognized this fact by merging with Walnut Creek. In future, they'll be 
merging the code of FreeBSD and BSD/OS.

In other words, the history of BSDI is a perfect example why you can't 
succeed at a closed source business when your product is a software 
commodity. BSDI tried, and have, essentially, failed. In a market where 
other companies have billions in revenues for *software alone* BSDI is a 
minor player dependent on a support business.


Ralph

-- 

Raffael Cavallaro, Ph.D.
raffael at mediaone.net