Will All Open Source End Up Behind Closed Doors?

Surprisingly, I do not have many friends who believe in open source. Blame it on lack of open source education or blame it on me, but it is a fact that open source does not appeal within my circle of friends. Many of them are businessmen, some software engineers and some are the everyday users. However all of them have one concern – the ability of open source to earn money. Somehow they like to judge their earning ability based on the earning ability of the software. In fact, some of them believe that all open source software will one day end up behind closed doors. Open source is just a way of building the software, but once built it will be bought by companies – this is one of the common notions.

There is no better way than to write here and present my argument.

Building software never stops

In today’s world software continuously evolves. In fact it always had to, we realized it a bit late, but have acknowledged it by investing in agile development. We can never say that a piece of software is done. The done is only with respect to the software project more than the product.

And there is no better way to continuously build the software than open source. Handing over the code to the community fosters innovation and reduces cost of failure. This not only builds a continuous feedback loop but it also lets many others contribute to the artefact – through code, documentation or helping others out. Is there a better way to evolve?

Not surprisingly, many more proprietary products are being opened up. Movable Type 4.0 has been opened up, Sun Microsystems is trying to build open source distributions for Solaris, which is its flagship product.

Cost and Value of Source Code

Many think that monetary earnings in software is through the price attached to the source code. It is important to note here that open source does not mean that the software is free of charge, though many products follow that. However, the benefit of software is not from its source code, it is from the solution that we get through it. Matt Assay explains this better

The emphasis in software is shifting away from software to the services it enables, whether those services are expressed in support and things like Red Hat Network, or whether those services are described in things like “search” (Google), professional networking (LinkedIn), etc. This, however, makes open source more relevant than ever, not less so.

The open source guides us in a direction where the earnings depend on benefits of the software, not its cost. The best way to treat software as an investment rather than cost-centre, and highlight the ROI rather than the cost.

Also, value of the source code is not the code itself, but it is in the freedom from vendor lock-in. This value does not have any direct monetary benefit in the short-term, but it pays back a lot by letting you not depend on a single entity to keep running your business.

Open Source Product and Proprietary Companies

If a proprietary company ends up buying an open source product, either it becomes an open source company or the product becomes proprietary. Making an open source product proprietary can be a disaster as open source development affects everything – the code, the process and the focus. To be able to continue the open source developemtn, it cannot neglect the community, Also the company cannot exercise any bias on the product development, as this has previously resulted in forks, which usually does not work out well for the proprietary counterpart.

In any event, a company buying an open source product cannot change the open source behavior without a business risk.

It is important to realize that software is not about code, it is about solving problems. When you get a software, with or without payments, the code gives you freedom to get the product customized to suit you. And all this without depending on a single entity. People who earn money in open source are the ones who provide value either through innovation or building solutions. Using open source software gives you more of such a chance, not lesser.