« [OSBC] John Roberts - SugarCRM | Main | San Francisco - my love affair »
February 16, 2006
[OSBC] The commercialization of Open Source 2.0
I'm slowly winding down after the second and last day attending OSBC. Today I spent some of my time wandering around and talking to the many Open Source companies that were in the exhibit hall.
Last year I was surprised by the level of Open Source commercialization here in the US compared to Europe. Well, this year I was perhaps even more surprised to see how the commercialization has spread far beyond companies like SpikeSource offering stacks and services around Open Source components to companies who - to put it bluntly - would seem to be going the Open Source way just because Open Source is the new black.
I fail to see how some of those companies expect to be successful, when all they seem to be doing is releasing the source code of their product (or a lesser version) under an Open Source license and offering a commercial version for a subscription fee. Oh boy.
On the other hand, I think this "quiet desperation" of individual commercial software vendors turning to Open Source in any way possible is but a shadow of what is to come.
I also took some photos of some of the speakers today.
Posted by Matthew at February 16, 2006 05:15 AM