The Selling of Open Source
By Dale Dougherty
Recently a colleague described his reaction to the made-for-TV movie The Pirates of Silicon Valley, which portrays Bill Gates and Steve Jobs: "That movie got that there are only two types of people in this industry," he said, "those who love what they do and those who love the money." The conversation drifted into a discussion of Open Source. He added, "I don't understand Open-Source developers. Every line of code I write has some value to someone or I wouldn't write it."
Love or money? I've noticed a tendency to portray Open-Source developers as a group of chivalrous hackers, pure of heart, who seek to change the world, while developers of proprietary systems are seen as mercenaries who seek profit. It's a false dichotomy, a way of making good guys and bad guys that obscures the motives of everyone. There is, however, a fundamental business reality that distinguishes between doing things for yourself and having it in your own interest to do work for others.
The Open-Source movement is about to face a big reality-check as companies like Red Hat and VA Linux Systems (formerly VA Research) file IPOs later this year. What happens when lots of money comes into the Open-Source community? Won't developers want a piece of the pie? Won't there be accusations, motivated by envy, that some developer has sold out? Won't competition among the various commercial entities cause fragmentation such as what has happened with UNIX? Will a single company emerge as the dominant player to marginalize all the others?
Eric S.
