Comments on: What Does Open Source Mean? http://www.pythian.com/blogs/1055/what-does-open-source-mean News and views from Pythian DBAs Thu, 4 Dec 2008 20:48:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 By: Lukas http://www.pythian.com/blogs/1055/what-does-open-source-mean#comment-212254 Lukas Thu, 05 Jun 2008 08:24:19 +0000 http://www.pythian.com/blogs/1055/what-does-open-source-mean#comment-212254 I would not mention MySQL Enterprise as a working example of OSS. Its a prime example of how not to approach OSS. Basically the Enterprise server just tries to live off the positive vibe of the Community server. So at most its using OSS as a marketing vehicle. It does not use the Community for development or even testing, which to me are the more critical pieces, especially since the Enterprise server is not free beer. I was at a little business lunch here in Zurich yesterday, where a Sun guy was explaining the implications of the Sub-MySQL deal. While he was busy portraying Sun as a company that gets OSS, I feel that form his explanations that Sun also sees OSS as a distribution mechanism and not as a development model. I hope that this guy was just overwhelmed with my questions and that Sun indeed understands that the power of OSS is in collaborative development and massive parallel testing and not so much in just building a large user base with cheap licensing fees for _some_ version o the software. I would not mention MySQL Enterprise as a working example of OSS. Its a prime example of how not to approach OSS. Basically the Enterprise server just tries to live off the positive vibe of the Community server. So at most its using OSS as a marketing vehicle. It does not use the Community for development or even testing, which to me are the more critical pieces, especially since the Enterprise server is not free beer.

I was at a little business lunch here in Zurich yesterday, where a Sun guy was explaining the implications of the Sub-MySQL deal. While he was busy portraying Sun as a company that gets OSS, I feel that form his explanations that Sun also sees OSS as a distribution mechanism and not as a development model. I hope that this guy was just overwhelmed with my questions and that Sun indeed understands that the power of OSS is in collaborative development and massive parallel testing and not so much in just building a large user base with cheap licensing fees for _some_ version o the software.

]]> By: Gary http://www.pythian.com/blogs/1055/what-does-open-source-mean#comment-212173 Gary Thu, 05 Jun 2008 04:06:13 +0000 http://www.pythian.com/blogs/1055/what-does-open-source-mean#comment-212173 "it’s free, and that’s better." As you said, open source isn't always free, and even if there's no licence fees, there can be support costs and the cost of your own staff and the hardware to run it. "As well, the talent pool for open source is greater, because there is a lower barrier to entry." That's a big assumption. Firstly, most 'closed source' software companies (Microsoft, Oracle etc) have either a free limited functionality product or a full featured 'non production' licence for their stuff. It is (almost) as easy to access the software as Open Source, at least for the software user. Secondly, at least in the DB world, the closed source offerings have a couple of decades head start on the market, so there's already experienced staff out there who have used the software in real-world applications. It would be interesting to see how easy it is to find experienced Oracle or SQL Server developers/DBAs compared with the open-source Postgres, MySQL and Ingres. "hire the top 10%" Most companies don't hire the top 10%, but the top 5 (or 10) INDIVIDUALS. And ploughing through 1000 resumes will be harder than 100 resumes. While I don't agree with the logic presented, I agree that it is easier to hire out of a large talent pool than a small one. One benefit of Open Source you didn't touch on is that closed-source vendors try to partition their market, charging more to large corporations than small businesses, normally using the idea of 'Enterprise level functionality' and/or charge per CPU/Gb... As a result, as businesses get bigger (or their data requirements do), their costs will rise, and small businesses suffer from lock-out of the costlier functionality. Open source makes the same functionality available irrespective of the size of the business, data volumes, hardware or its bank balance. “it’s free, and that’s better.”
As you said, open source isn’t always free, and even if there’s no licence fees, there can be support costs and the cost of your own staff and the hardware to run it.

“As well, the talent pool for open source is greater, because there is a lower barrier to entry.”
That’s a big assumption.
Firstly, most ‘closed source’ software companies (Microsoft, Oracle etc) have either a free limited functionality product or a full featured ‘non production’ licence for their stuff. It is (almost) as easy to access the software as Open Source, at least for the software user.
Secondly, at least in the DB world, the closed source offerings have a couple of decades head start on the market, so there’s already experienced staff out there who have used the software in real-world applications.
It would be interesting to see how easy it is to find experienced Oracle or SQL Server developers/DBAs compared with the open-source Postgres, MySQL and Ingres.

“hire the top 10%”
Most companies don’t hire the top 10%, but the top 5 (or 10) INDIVIDUALS. And ploughing through 1000 resumes will be harder than 100 resumes. While I don’t agree with the logic presented, I agree that it is easier to hire out of a large talent pool than a small one.

One benefit of Open Source you didn’t touch on is that closed-source vendors try to partition their market, charging more to large corporations than small businesses, normally using the idea of ‘Enterprise level functionality’ and/or charge per CPU/Gb… As a result, as businesses get bigger (or their data requirements do), their costs will rise, and small businesses suffer from lock-out of the costlier functionality.
Open source makes the same functionality available irrespective of the size of the business, data volumes, hardware or its bank balance.

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