What Microsoft giveth, Jive taketh away
The Web has been aflutter with the news that through its new BizSpark program, Microsoft is seeding startups with its software to entice them to steer clear of open source. That's the view from OStatic and others that I've read, and it's probably true, at least in part.
Will it work? No. Good startups are always looking to save money, and will appreciate the "free production licenses for application hosting and management servers, including Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server, BizTalk Server and Systems Center and soon, Microsoft Dynamics CRM," as OStatic suggests. But they're unlikely to move to Windows from Linux, for example, because Linux is a long-term performance and cost choice, not a three-year "I'll use it because it's free...for now" choice (which is all that BizSpark gets new startups.
Interestingly, in the same week that Microsoft started doling out the software, collaboration vendor Jive started taking it away from open-source projects. As Orion Addis, Jive Software's sales representative covering the Bay Area, wrote to an open-source peer of mine:
We no longer offer free licensing of Clearspace, Clearspace Community, or Jive Forums to open source projects. We are only selling licensing moving forward. Clearspace Community licensing is listed at $xx,xxx per application server CPU per year or $xx,xxx a year in our hosting facilities for <500,000 page views a month.
Does this suggest some nefarious design on Jive's part, charging for software it used to give away gratis? No. I suspect it is simply an indication that Jive is looking to make money where it can, and probably incurred more cost than benefit in supporting open-source projects free of charge.
The two companies - Microsoft and Jive - arrived at very different conclusions as to what would drive sales for them. This will ever be the case, and it's what makes open source, in particular, so fascinating. One person's cancer is another person's freedom, as it were. The value of 'free' shifts and changes over time.
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
Also, we used Atlassian products all throughout JBoss... if it scaled at JBoss, it should scale for most.
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/06/open_schwartz/">http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/06/open_schwartz/</a>
Thanks,
Matt
CTO, Jive Software
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- by Beenthinking November 7, 2008 10:21 PM PST
- Shouldn't use the Cancer vs Freedom metaphor....1. It makes no sense, 2. its potentially insulting.
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- by The_Decider November 10, 2008 7:55 PM PST
- "Only reason to write code"
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(8 Comments)Software companies exist to make money. Make no mistake. Only reason to write code. The two differing models are interesting in that they point to different corporate needs and showcase how both companies plan on influencing the markets moving forward. Jive Software continues to be a very innovative, PROFITABLE, software company that provides products that enterprises, organizations and open source projects want. Microsoft...well, goes without saying. The most interesting aspect appears to be the two models given the stage both are at with their respective products for the target market.
People who would write this shouldn't be coding.
You code for the challenge and the enjoyment of it. That is where all quality code starts.