Open Source as a Business: Strategy, Struggle & Success

Open Source as a Business Strategy, Struggle & Success Mad props to Philipp Krenn @xeraa @warkolm

https://twitter.com/ geowolf/status/ 971811346823221248

[…] allow software to be freely used, modified, and shared. https://opensource.org/licenses @warkolm

Open Source ≠ Business Model @warkolm

Open source is a distribution model that allows us to build community. It’s a force multiplier. Shay Banon, Elastic @warkolm

@warkolm

!”# Where is the ? @warkolm

Strategy @warkolm

Services Support, Consulting, Training, Certification @warkolm

@warkolm

https://investors.redhat.com/~/media/Files/R/Red-Hat-IR/documents/q418-fact-sheet.pdf

Support Problem Ease of Use @warkolm

Support Problem Renewal Rates @warkolm

Consulting & Training Problem Service-Only Competition @warkolm

Open Core @warkolm

@warkolm

Problem Competing Tools @warkolm

Problem Less Open, More Commercial @warkolm

Problem Cloud Providers @warkolm

Cloud Service @warkolm

@warkolm

Problem Cloud Providers @warkolm

The intent of open source software was not so that someone else can take the exact same software and offer it as a service. Salil Deshpande (Bain Capital), https://www.geekwire.com/2018/might-time-bigcloud-share-wealth-open-source-startups/ @warkolm

Partnerships @warkolm

@warkolm

Problem Domain Specific @warkolm

Donations @warkolm

@warkolm

Problem Scaling & Planning @warkolm

Certified Partners @warkolm

@warkolm

Problem Requires Commercial Ecosystem @warkolm

Ads @warkolm

@warkolm

Problem What Is (the Price to Be) Acceptable @warkolm

Merchandise @warkolm

@warkolm

Problem Revenue @warkolm

Bounty / Crowdfunding @warkolm

@warkolm

Problem Vision & Maintainablility @warkolm

Struggle @warkolm

Philosophy @warkolm

If you are claiming your startup/company is open source and you aren’t contributing to some form of upstream… then you aren’t really. Sorry not sorry. Jessie Frazelle, https://twitter.com/jessfraz/status/954802380125736961 @warkolm

Contributors Users Consumers @warkolm

[…] If you are MSFT and I ask you if you’ve used Redis and you say “you mean Azure Redis Cache?”, that’s not a good sign. https://twitter.com/jensenharris/status/984268950136537088 @warkolm

@warkolm

Apache 2 modified with Commons Clause (2018/08) @warkolm

Without limiting other conditions in the License, the grant of rights under the License will not include, and the License does not grant to you, the right to Sell the Software. https://commonsclause.com @warkolm

Be aware that the debate starting up about the Common Clause license due to Redis Labs adopting it will likely be heavily tainted by large corporations who have a lot of free labor to lose suddenly pretending to be huge champions of free software ideals. https://twitter.com/taotetek/status/1032248562116186112 @warkolm

@warkolm

AGPL Server / Apache Clients Server Side Public License (2018/10) @warkolm

“13. Remote Network Interaction; Use with the GNU General Public License.” “13. Offering the Program as a Service.” https://www.mongodb.com/licensing/server-side-public-license @warkolm

Timing Effective Today @warkolm

Clones FoundationDB Document Layer Amazon DocumentDB @warkolm

[…] we are hereby withdrawing the SSPL from OSI consideration. http://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-review_lists.opensource.org/2019March/003989.html @warkolm

Money @warkolm

Conflict of Interest Open Source vs Commercial View @warkolm

@warkolm

In case you needed proof, @zdatainc just released a #benchmark report where #DataStax6 outperforms #OpenSource #cassandra http:// bit.ly/2txOvWl #databases #data https://twitter.com/DataStax/status/1012380187886055424 @warkolm

@warkolm

Venture Capital Accelerated Development vs Calling the Shots @warkolm

@warkolm

Development Hobbled Product vs Starving Company @warkolm

@warkolm

Commercial Code Open / Visible Code vs Closed Source @warkolm

@warkolm

Tricks Open Source but… @warkolm

@warkolm

Success @warkolm

Business Is Optional @warkolm

@warkolm

Business Is Complicated @warkolm

It saddens me that closed source companies are acclaimed for merely putting a piece of code on GitHub, while commercial open source companies get the worse shit for any action that involves protecting their work. Arnaud Porterie (former Docker engine lead), https://twitter.com/icecrime/ status/1032155227368185856 @warkolm

Time for an Updated Model? @warkolm

MongoDB seeks to do what the FSF failed to do in 2007: close the “ASP loophole.” That is, to make the GPL (and open source) more relevant to the cloud era by ensuring those that modify and distribute open source as a cloud service contribute back. Matt Asay (former MongoDB VP of Community), https://twitter.com/mjasay/status/ 1052191818937327616 @warkolm

More than Reciprocal Permissive vs Copyleft vs SSPL @warkolm

@warkolm

All Code Open Not Open Source — Apache 2 & Elastic License @warkolm

@warkolm

Training Consulting @warkolm

@warkolm

https://elastic.shop

Thanks! Mark Walkom @warkolm @warkolm