Microsoft likes to tout the cost savings that derive from paying Windows-skilled employees less money.
That's great, if you're an employer, but if you're an engineer who needs to feed her family, the money is in Linux and Mac OS X skills, as highlighted in a recent post on the site of the Free and Open Source Software Learning Centre:
(Credit:
Indeed.com)
Of course, once you look past the operating-system data, it's clear that open-source skills do, on average, command less of a premium, perhaps because they're in more abundant supply. Because students are more likely to have JBoss or MySQL experience upon graduation than Oracle or WebSphere experience, for example, there is greater supply to appease demand and, hence, reduce salaries, on average.
This is almost certainly the reason that Windows skills command lower salaries, too: Microsoft has done a great job of seeding the education market with free or low-cost versions of its software, making Windows and other Microsoft technologies pervasive and cheap to learn.
Are these lower salaries necessarily bad? Probably not. So long as the demand for such skills remains strong, taking a lower paycheck in return for greater job security is probably worth it.
If you're a student hoping to get a job after graduation, your best bet is likely to aim for the largest and/or most resilient markets.
With open source increasing its share of enterprise computing, it's a safe bet to invest in open-source software skills. There's safety in numbers.
Follow me on Twitter at mjasay.
Rather than twiddling your thumbs through the economic downturn, ZDNet's Joe Brockmeier has even better advice: write more open-source software. There are a variety of good reasons to do so, including using code contributions as a way to position your talents to would-be employers, but one stands out:
Studies have shown that open-source developers make more money than those that simply know how to CTRL-ALT-DEL their way out of Windows problems.
How much more? Up to 40 percent more. But the benefits don't stop there. Employers also benefit, as Jon Williams, CTO of NBC Universal's iVillage once told me, because the most talented programmers want to write open-source software. Open source therefore becomes a great retention tool when employees nervously look for greener pastures.
These are anxious times, but good things will come from the recession. Let's hope that one of those "good things" is more open-source software written by...you.
Apparently, Apple engineers get paid less than their Silicon Valley peers. Some are speculating that Apple will need to cough up more cash or face a rash of defections.
I doubt it.
For one thing, Apple's engineers also get stock. Have you noticed the stock price lately? There's more than one way to get paid.
There's also the Apple mystique. No, it doesn't put granola on the table but it counts for something. As Fabrizio Capobianco, my friend and Funambol's CEO, often tells me, Juventus can get top-notch players for less because many of the best soccer players want to play for Juventus at any price.
Lastly, where are these developers going to go? We have a looming recession on our hands. I doubt the employment market is going to see considerable froth in the near term. A safe job at a successful company probably looks more appealing today than a job with an uber-cool start-up that may not pay the bills a year from now.
In sum, Apple has time to figure this out and may not need to do anything.
Want to make more money as an enterprise application developer? You're in luck--if you know open source.
According to a recent report from Bluewolf Consulting, enterprises increasingly deploy open-source software, and look to specialized application development on top of it, to drive business value:
The rise of open-source software in application development puts developers with a specialization in those technologies in a position to ask for a 30 (percent) or 40 percent pay increase, Kirven says. "We've gotten more requests from our permanent-placement division for open-source developers in the last six months than in the last five or six years combined," he says. "It's not as easy as getting free software; someone has to get it up and running. LAMP is everywhere now--these types of technologies no one heard of 18 months ago are all the sudden becoming a hot commodity."
Indeed. Not only does open source bring developers more money, but it also apparently brings them more satisfaction.
Jon Williams, chief technology officer of test preparation company Kaplan, made it very clear in an Infoworld podcast I recorded a month ago that open source is one of his best retention tools.
Let people do interesting work, and they stick around. Make them mindlessly monitor that Windows machine, and they'll bolt.
Update: It is also worth reading about how open source drives enterprise innovation.
Sydney-based consulting firm Waugh Partners in conjunction with Fujitsu, IBM and NICTA ran a census that showed what many of us have suspected for some time: open source pays more. The census was conducted in open-source savvy Australia, so the results may be skewed somewhat.
Still, it was significant to see that more than 5 percent of the available IT population was surveyed with 57 percent suggesting that they don't get paid to write open source at all, while 10 percent of Australia's IT population are paid to write open-source software full-time and another 33 percent get paid to write open source at least occasionally.
As for how much money is in open source, the answer is "More."
... Read the full post at CNET's CES 2010 blog
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