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I've been a zone leader with DZone since 2008. I work as a technical lead on a next generation tool suite using based on Eclipse. This means that I get to use Java everyday, and a selection of the best Eclipse technologies, from EMF to GEF to Xtext. Along with all of this, I do iOS development in my spare time. James is a DZone Zone Leader and has posted 529 posts at DZone. You can read more from them at their website. View Full User Profile

Open Source: Not Everyone Is A Winner

12.23.2010
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Like most Java developers, I wouldn't have gotten very far without the help of open source software. The variety of tools and frameworks available is an important factor for the success of the industry. However, the amount of tools that move to an open source model increase, there is an adverse effect on part of the software world: the competitiors.

When Google announced that they were taking over Instantiations, and giving the tools away for free, like all developers I thought that this was great. In the back of my mind though, I knew that this was going to take some competitors out of the market. WindowTester is one of the leading UI automation tools, but I can think of another 3 companies off the top of my head that provide similar solutions.  I'm not sure if enough people will flock to WindowTester to cause damage to their business, but you can imagine it will have a dent in their profits at least. WindowBuilder might be less of an issue, as there was not too much competition on the visual editor front.  WindowBuilder is now going on to be open sourced, with Genuitec, creators of MyEclipse, providing commerical support for the tool.

This trend has been developing over the past few years. All major IDEs are now free. Some tools that you've paid for in the past are now available for free. 

The main point here is that for every bit of good news you get about free or open source tools, there's a segment of the software market that will suffer. There's no doubt that new entrants in the software market have to look at more innovative plans to make money, and would initially need to give away, or open source, their work. Relying on commercial support is probably the most common way to make a profit in this type of software economy. 

What are your thoughts on this? Have you ever felt bad for companies who have the try and compete with free software? Are there more innovative approaches to making money from free software that we haven't seen emerge yet?

Published at DZone with permission of its author, James Sugrue.

(Note: Opinions expressed in this article and its replies are the opinions of their respective authors and not those of DZone, Inc.)

Comments

Derek Smith replied on Thu, 2010/12/23 - 8:18am

Its the walmart effect. Big companies give away some stuff to get you to buy some of their other stuff. Look what happens to the little guys who cant compete. Is it a good thing or a bad thing? The consumers get more for less, so thats good, but the guy who was making a living from that product now needs to find a new job, probably at walmart making next to nothing....

Claude Lalyre replied on Thu, 2010/12/23 - 11:11am

IMHO the problem with company making too much money is that the competitors cannot bring innovative idea on the market. Because the BIG company can close the market and impose its software solution as de facto standards, even if their soft is a dum... sh... comparing to the new competitors.

And the only way to fight against monopolistic companies is the free software industry. But even in the free software field it is hard to fight because of patents or licence restrictions. If ever free software hadn't been invented, then the world we are living in wouldn't have been so dynamic, so innovative, so rich, so smart

It is possible to make money even with crappy software, if you are able to eliminate all your competitors...

Monkey Boy replied on Thu, 2010/12/23 - 11:10am

Microsoft seems to compete well with free software. I think we should not feel particularly bad when a company is put out of business because of cheaper/better competition. At the end of the day everybody in general is better off. The customers are obviously better off because they get a cheaper and/or better product. Sure, some people may be laid off but they will probably find another job on which their talents will be used in a better (more profitable) way. And what is the alternative? To subsidize them? I think not.

Eric Samson replied on Thu, 2010/12/23 - 1:05pm in response to: claudeL

The paradox is that free software has only reinforced monopolistic software companies, by preventing small software companies (pure players) to survive. Support-based business models cannot generate enough revenue to sustain strong R&D effort, it can only generate enough revenues to pay... support engineers. Open source has been seen an alternative to arrogant dominant vendors (Oracle, IBM, MS...) and at the end all of them (plus Google now) increased their market positions.

Stephane Vaucher replied on Thu, 2010/12/23 - 2:24pm

Who remembers when you needed to buy a compiler, or a tcp/ip implementation? The stack of free software used to build software is constantly increasing, and has for over twenty years. This is nothing new. The only thing that is changing is the rate at which this free software is available.

James Jamesson replied on Fri, 2010/12/24 - 1:49am in response to: eric samson

Eric I agree, the lack of innovative ideas coming out of free software community is also the bi-product of this paradox. Innovation still comes from closed source compaines with big R&D departments. The free software community strikes back with a half baked clone of that product which is open source. Because it is half baked no business use it and pay for support.

Open source software have also little patent mines in them unknown to the developer. The patent owner will most certainly go after the business who uses the software.

I said it before and say it again "open source" means nothing. No one has resources and time to get into that huge source tree and fix,add stuff (dont even mention forking the monster). So yes it is a paradox and as Eric said it only benefits the large companies.

David Lee replied on Fri, 2010/12/24 - 5:18pm in response to: jamesjames

Well said. Everyone doesn't win. As a developer, I'm all for everyone paying for software. I'd rather it be really cheap for pay, than just for free. I want developers to be able make a living from their efforts.

Erwin Mueller replied on Fri, 2010/12/24 - 8:21pm

That opinion of you just stinks so high in the sky. Instead of just using this vast resources that open source gives you, that the big companies give you, you are bitching about that you can't develop just a 08/15 software and sell it to the poor suckers who can't develop it them self.

Take Facebook, Google, Redhat, Wordpress, Drupal, and many more that are using the open source tools for free and making millions in profit. I, for myself, couldn't do anything without all the free software and tools. They are enable me to write such great software. If I needed to pay for every piece of software and tool which I'm using I would have no money left at all. I would probable working as a waiter begging for tips.

Thank god for open source software. Without open source software we would still be building the same tools over and over again just to save the license fees. Without open source software there would be no innovation because everything would be either under a proprietary license or patents and would need a high first investment.

But with open source software you can just create a cheap startup, take Linux, Apache, Php and create the next big thing on the web.

James Jamesson replied on Sat, 2010/12/25 - 1:44pm in response to: devent

Good for you, however no one is against open source software and no one cares if one uses them.

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