RE: HBS WK: Who will win Microsoft or Linux?

I'm nowhere near ready to put the nail in the coffin of proprietary,
traditional licensed software. However, I do have a theory as to what
sort of software might continue to thrive as closed source... I term it
Goldilocks software... not too horizontal, and not too vertical. If a
piece of software is too widely appealing, like word processors,
Operating systems, web browsers, etc., then it is a prime candidate for
a widely supported open source effort. If it is too vertical, (as in
CRM, payroll, the sorts of things that Perot Systems, PeopleSoft and the
like go after) then large companies will pay people to work on open
source efforts to increase the bottom line elsewhere.

The sweet spot for proprietary software are those areas that are in the
middle... where you have several thousand, but not several million
customers. Where none of the customers are themselves technical enough,
or large enough, to start an open source effort on their own. If the
target customers themselves are also non-technical, that sweetens the
sweet spot. As of yet, the perception if not the reality, is that you
get more hand holding with proprietary software than you do with open
source. Open source depends upon tech savey customers (at least for
now).

-Kelly

-----Original Message-----
From: Taran Rampersad [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sent: Saturday, June 11, 2005 5:26 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: HBS WK: Who will win Microsoft or Linux?

While I'll beat the drum for Open Source and Free Software, at the end
of the day developers have to get paid. And if they are only dealing
with a niche market of SMBs or departments of corporations, sometimes
the best way is to proprietarily license. TAANSTAFL. And before someone
says, "but you said a while back that..." - that was a case of rewriting
an existing license to make it more proprietary, and I don't believe in
a bazillion more Free Software/Open Source licenses.







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