These past two weeks have been fascinating. Frustrating, but fascinating. Frustrating, because people have seemingly been duped by Oracle's and Microsoft's supposedly good intentions (these people have short memories). But fascinating as I watch open source come center stage in the software industry.
I've learned a great deal since I first got involved with open source in 1998. Lessons about sales, about trying to hide a poor product behind open source distribution (far too many vendors continue to do this...), about "pure" support models and their viability, among other things.
But one lesson stands out above them all, and was first related to me by a good friend at Red Hat:
Customers are open source's only true friends.A bit forlorn? Well, it might have seemed so before, until Red Hat's top partner, Oracle, stabbed it in the back. Or until its top Linux competitor - and ally in the open source fight - Novell, sold its integrity to Microsoft.
If Red Hat can't count on its partners to...partner, or its competitors to...compete, then on whom can it count?
Its customers. The companies that continue to rate it #1 in value.
If you're an open source vendor, you need to understand that Red Hat isn't alone in this. Your customers are the only ones who truly appreciate the value you can bring through open source. You may want to rely on a big, proprietary sugar daddy to help you get to market. By all means, do so. But if these past two weeks teach us anything, it's that it's critical to hedge our bets.
Open source vendors are a clear and present danger to all proprietary software companies. Open source vendors have no long-term friends among this Proprietary Bloc. Because, at the end of the day, open source's lower prices and greater access are a direct threat to the license revenues and maintenance streams of the Proprietary Bloc.
Again, this is not to say that open source companies shouldn't partner with proprietary vendors. Of course they should, as this will often lead to greater customer value. But they shouldn't do so with a Pollyanna hope that the proprietary vendor is going to love them for demonstrating that software can be delivered with higher quality, lower prices, and a tighter alignment of vendor/customer interests through open source than it ever was with a bloated, customer-unfriendly license model.
Focus on the customer. Partners and competitors will come and go. Open source customers will stay true. Their businesses depend on it.
Posted by Matt Asay on November 5, 2006 06:35 PM
