Open source VS Proprietary sales
Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 12:33 pm
Interesting article I just read:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/ ... tc_218.htm
Especially this statement:

I wonder what the ratio between commercially successful OSS projects and commercial projects is?
Everytime I read an article like this I just boil. I want more than anything to believe OSS is a good move for a business, but everytime I read an article on SugarCRM or similar it always seems they are funded by VC's and not really making serious profit. Especially under the context of PHP applications - not considering MySQL, etc.
I imagine that some businesses make a decent living selling customizations but I dought that is any way to make a business.
Thought I'd share.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/ ... tc_218.htm
Especially this statement:
2% is certainly a small number of paying clients/download. Sure if you have a popular OSS project I suppose there is security in volume but for most projects wishing to turn profit...I'm thinking OSS is not likely the way to go.But revenue continues to be a problem. While open-source companies trumpet hundreds of thousands of downloads, on average just about 2% of those customers are actually paying any money. After all, just because every piece of software companies rely on to run their businesses can be replicated with open-source alternatives, that doesn't mean there's a market for it, caution analysts
I wonder what the ratio between commercially successful OSS projects and commercial projects is?
Everytime I read an article like this I just boil. I want more than anything to believe OSS is a good move for a business, but everytime I read an article on SugarCRM or similar it always seems they are funded by VC's and not really making serious profit. Especially under the context of PHP applications - not considering MySQL, etc.
I imagine that some businesses make a decent living selling customizations but I dought that is any way to make a business.
Thought I'd share.