stormy's blog

Open source software is well known for being "free" as in free beer. Many people start using open source software because it's cheap. And while open source software has a lower "total cost of ownership" than proprietary software, i.e. it's cheaper to use open source software than proprietary software, that's only partially because it's free upfront.

As anyone who uses open source software can tell you, open source software is only free initially. Then, like all software it costs to maintain it, trouble shoot it, upgrade it, etc. Only a few like this open source cheapskate that Matt Asay blogs about expect it to come with free customization and support. With open source software you still have to pay or spend time on:

I've spent a lot of time helping companies figure out how to manage open source software in their enterprise. Challenges that enterprises face include figuring out what open source they are using, creating an open source software policy, setting up a review process or an open source review board, and then getting on to the day to day business of managing open source software. All without disrupting the developers who are already happily and productively using open source software! (You just want to help them be more productive while making sure you comply with licenses and minimize risks.)

In a conversation with a large financial company, we realized that there's a life cycle that enterprises go through when they are managing open source software.

"There's no support" is one of the common anti-open source software arguments. I could start by saying we support 350+ open source software projects and we aren't the only ones in the business. But the real reason I think people say there isn't any support for open source software is because the open source software support model is different than the proprietary model.

I advocate figuring out your open source strategy before you create an open source policy. 

I've helped a number of companies create open source software policies and I've discovered that companies need to know what their open source strategy is before they can effectively implement a policy.  If you are using open source software primarily to save money on licensing fees, you will have a different set of policies than if you were using open source software primarily to help create a non-competitive space to develop standards with your partners.

I'm a big fan of open source because I hate reinventing the wheel.  Open source software enables developers to get straight to the business of creating new and better technology solutions for all of us.   They want to build a new social media application?  All the building blocks are out there already and they can start designing and implementing their app immediately.