An article from Analytics Insight provides a high-level roadmap to starting an open source project.
While reducing many of the steps to a single bullet point is of course oversimplifying them, the piece nonetheless does a good job of covering the things FOSS project founders should consider. The editor can attest that one of the community engagement steps, “celebrate milestones,” does indeed do a lot for the project. The takeaway for would-be entrepreneurs is that the start of an open source project can also be the start of your future business.
Open Source Leader States Licenses “aren’t working”
Bruce Perens, veteran of open source organizations including the Debian project and the Open Source Initiative, feels open source licensing has “failed,” speaking at this year’s “State of Open” convension (via ITPro). Specific shortcomings according to Perens include GPL circumvention, where companies place restrictions on end products that leverage open source code, which stifles innovation while only the companies get compensated.
Weaveworks Closure Creates Doubt Regarding Open Core Model
A TechTarget article reporting the closure of Weaveworks casts some doubt on the validity of the “open core” model. The company, which created the open source Flex continuous delivery (CD) solutions for Kubernetes, with a focus on GitOps as the configuration method. Analysts covering the event noted that although the business was built on a solid idea that’s still in use today, good ideas don’t always make for successful business models. The article also references recent moves away from open core, such as HashiCorp’s license update and Red Hat’s change in how its RHEL source code is published.
Spiceworks Publishes Read-worthy Overview of Open Source
While you may have heard of this thing called open source, you may not know exactly what it means, or how it can affect you and the software you use. Spiceworks published a solid overview to open source, including its definitions, pros, and cons. While the discussion of licensing is a little simplistic, it’s nonetheless a good place to start to learn about the wonderful world of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS).
Microsoft’s About-Face on Open Source Contributed to 10x Valuation Growth
An article at Forbes (by way of CNBC and Slashdot) details how Microsoft, under current CEO Satya Nadella, has grown its valution ten times to $3.06 trillion. Nadella, who replaced CEO Steve Ballmer in 2014, ushered in an era of increased collaboration, including a significant change in attitude regarding open source. Under Ballmer, open source was labeled “viral software” that couldn’t be trusted and would do harm to businesses that use it. But now the company makes direct open source contributions, while Linux is the top OS running on Microsoft’s Azure cloud service. Certainly a number of factors have contributed to Microsoft’s growth over these past ten years (such as acquisitions like LinkedIn, Mojang, and GitHub), but it’s safe to say that embracing open source has also helped Microsoft along the way.
Leading Open Source CMS Developers Found Open Web Alliance
The communities behind the leading open source CMS projects–Drupal, Joomla, TYPO3, and WordPress–have founded the Open Web Alliance (via Drupal). The primary goals of the Alliance are to promote open source content management systems as well as enhance collaboration between the projects, with an eye towards providing an alternative to proprietary systems that reduce users’ freedom. It’s worth noting that the Alliance’s members are the open source projects supporting their respective systems, not the commercial entities (such as Automattic for WordPress and Acquia for Drupal).
Report Points to FOSS as a Market Challenge for eHealth Software Growth
A new report by Technavio (by way of Yahoo! Finance) lists the breadth of software and services offered by open source vendors as a challenge constraining growth for the market. While the newswire announcement doesn’t provide any details, the report nevertheless forecasts a 15.72% CAGR to add $138.38 billion to the segment through 2028.
Use of Open Source Provides Hope for Canadia Healthcare System
The Canadian healthcare system has been under pressure in recent years, but an article at The Conversation details a study on how open source can help. The piece elaborates on common core values of FOSS, including avoiding vendor lock-in and accelerated innovation. However, it also focuses on the latter, and its impact on total cost of ownership in the absence of ongoing costs such as licensing fees.
The idea that using open source can also free up funds to be usefully applied elsewhere, and the impact that may have, is sometimes lost when discussing the private sector and maximizing monetary shareholder return. But in government, where the budget needs to be spent one way or the other, open source can help maximize value return.
Discover Details How Open Source Helps It Serve Customers
Discover Financial Services’ payback on its investment in open source is detailed in an article at CIO Dive. By focusing on constantly improving the ways it helps customers manage their money, the company cited the combination of “code, community, cultuer, and people” as a key driver of innovation. In addition to adopting inner-source programs, Discover also collaborates with projects such as The Linux Foundation and the Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS).
Open Source’s Many Contributions to the Farming Sector
An article by NewsBytes highlights the impact open source has on the farming sector. In addition to direct effects such as access to software to aid in farming operations and their efficiency (i.e. “agritech”), the piece also mentions adjacent benefits such as access to platforms to provide education and training.
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