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Novell, SUSE & Open Source – Getting the word out!
I was talking to someone recently about open source, Novells purchase of SUSE Linux; what a smart move that was and how the future looks bright for Novell. Explaining the concept of Open source and how big a deal all this was for Novell wasn’t so easy.
The other day I came across an audio recording of a speech by David Patrick at the Open Source Convention (OSCON) in Portland, Oregon back in 2004. What he says still rings very true and its a good link for someone to check out to get an overview of the importance of the moves by Novell in open source.
David talks about how Novell has transformed itself from a being perceived by many as a once great has-been; reinventing itself as the most serious player in open source, taking on the challenges of transforming itself to a new business model, with the emphasis in a mature market on supporting existing customers rather than relying on the revenue of license sales to new customers.
He went on to dispel some of the myths surrounding open source, including de-bunking the idea that open source and proprietary software can’t co-exist – this is not a one track future, open source and proprietary both have futures. Excellent examples of open source are MySQL & Apache. Some companies have two versions of software; a free version and a paid version with a different support/release model.
Open source is free, but lets not confuse that, organizations still have costs associated with maintaining and supporting it like any product. The cost model compares attractively, but careful use needs to be made of the word free so as not to mislead. As customers are no longer locked in to a forced bi-annual upgrade, the companies relationship with its customers is key if they are to keep those clients. Open source licensing models, such as GPL, allow developers to co-develop and share their code allowing them to evolve the best code. Understanding the licensing models is key.
The internet was key to the sharing of code, its hard to see how open source would have evolved the way it has without the internet. Code developed in this open way, out on the net naturally takes security seriously. Customers are sick of the one size fits all approach of many proprietary products, choice is at the heart of open source – companies involved in the open source arena need to facilitate choice if they are to retain and attract clients.
Follow the money? Right now a ton of money is being invested in open source by companies like HP and IBM. Developing in the open source arena is all about understanding complements and substitutes; Open Office is a complement to Linux, Linux is a substitute to Windows. Looking at the development stack architectural decisions have to be made about what elements to bring in as complimentary or whether to develop substitutes.
Novell has invested $250 million in bringing in Open source, Novell is a cool place to work, and Novell are back on the map for a whole new generation who may not have been familiar with Novell.
Linux is a disruptive technology, just as digital photography is doing for film photography; so open source is to the proprietary software market. Novell sees a mix of proprietary and open source; an open source only route is not necessarily desirable. Patrick uses the example of tax software where he feels proprietary is the correct model.
So, that’s my take on what he had to say, you can check out the audio recording yourself at http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail173.html
