Stop saying open source nonsense>
Infoworld, from IDG – Matt Asay
Creating a successful open source project requires more than mimicking the business models of Red Hat or Confluent. Even to this day, people pine for the good olâ days of Red Hat. You know, a company that works completely in open source, that contributes back to the communities on which it depends (like Linux, like Kubernetes). I love Red Hat. Iâve always admired it. But its business model works for basically no other company (or project) on the planet. This is one reason I have little patience with those who dourly denounce the venture capitalists who have funded so much of the open source we enjoy. (See Tim Brayâs comment: âI have little sympathy with modern VC-driven business models.â) These sentiments invariably come from people who work for big companies and have never had to make open source pay, never had to pay their mortgage by turning open source into sustenance. Google, the pioneer of Kubernetes, and AWS, which came later to Kubernetes, both offer their own managed Kubernetes services and their own distributions so that enterprises can run a rough equivalent of Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) in their own data centers. Why ârough equivalentâ. Because if you want to run EKS the way AWS does, youâre going to need AWSâ infrastructure, operational expertise, etc. Youâre probably not AWS. Or Google. Or Confluent. Yet there are principles you can follow that can help build a successful business around a successful open source project, thereby inviting more investment and greater developer (and customer) happiness. The right open source model for you depends on the dynamics around your project and potential customers. By all means, learn from Confluentâs success, just as we once looked to Red Hat. But donât be blinded by another companyâs success. Your open source mileage may vary.
Link: https://www.infoworld.com/article/3641218/stop-saying-open-source-nonsense.html?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Title%3A%20Stop%20saying%20open%20source%20nonsense&utm_campaign=IDG%27s