« Open Source is coming, says Microsoft | Main | April Fools »
March 31, 2004
How many licenses do I need?
Yesterday I was invited to speak about Open Source to some senior managers of a large corporation. We already work for them building enterprise applications based on Open Source frameworks such as Apache Cocoon. However this time I was to talk about Open Source to the boss of the boss of the people we normally work with. The main subject of the presentation was to be "What is Open Source anyway" or thereabouts.
Now even though this particular corporation is already using Open Source to build things like global enterprise portals, the boss-boss hadn't really shown that much interest in the subject. Until yesterday.
The presentation began well and I launched in to a brief overview of Open Source licenses - when he stopped me. "Just a moment", he said, "how many of these licenses do I need?" I paused, unsure what to reply, when he continued "I mean, if I install this framework stuff on say 50 servers in our company, do I then need 50 licenses?" And then it clicked and I explained that an Open Source license is - well - not exactly the same as say a license to use a commercial product. "An Open Source license is more like a book of rules on how to use the software", I explained.
And so for the rest of the presentation, which went pretty well, I remembered to think like someone who has been using commercial software for decades and provide some additional remarks that helped him understand the differences between Open Source and the world as he knew it.
Posted by Matthew at March 31, 2004 09:28 PM