Open Source as a Business: Strategy, Struggle & Success

Open Source as a Business Strategy, Struggle & Success Philipp Krenn @xeraa @xeraa

[...] allow software to be freely used, modified, and shared. https://opensource.org/licenses @xeraa

The Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG) https://www.debian.org/social_contract. 1.0#guidelines (1997) @xeraa

Who is using OSS? @xeraa

Who is opening issues? @xeraa

Who is contributing back? @xeraa

https://twitter.com/ geowolf/status/ 971811346823221248

Ninety-eight-point-five percent of the code ever put into the core of Puppet was put in there by somebody I paid. https://www.geekwire.com/2018/might-time-big-cloud-share-wealth-open-sourcestartups/ @xeraa

Open Source ≠ Business Model @xeraa

Open source is a distribution model that allows us to build community. It’s a force multiplier. Shay Banon @xeraa

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Developer @xeraa

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!"# Where is the ? @xeraa

Agenda Strategy Struggle Success @xeraa

Strategy @xeraa

Services Support, Consulting, Training, Certification @xeraa

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https://investors.redhat.com/~/media/Files/R/Red-Hat-IR/documents/q418-fact-sheet.pdf

Support Problem Ease of Use @xeraa

Support Problem Renewal Rates @xeraa

Service & Training Problem Consulting-Only Competition @xeraa

Open Core @xeraa

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Problem Competing Tools @xeraa

Problem Less open, more commercial @xeraa

Problem Cloud Providers @xeraa

Cloud Service @xeraa

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Problem Cloud Providers @xeraa

The intent of open source software was not so that someone else can take the exact same software and offer it as a service. https://www.geekwire.com/2018/might-time-big-cloud-share-wealth-open-sourcestartups/ @xeraa

Partnerships @xeraa

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Donations @xeraa

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For Patreon/donations to be a viable business model, have to put in just as much work as you’d have to do selling services/product, likely ending up w less from donations You can point to donation models that had it easy & I can point to traditional businesses that got lucky too https://twitter.com/sehurlburt/status/1036091578060656640 @xeraa

Certified Partners @xeraa

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Problem Strength of the commercial ecosystem @xeraa

Ads @xeraa

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Problem What is acceptable @xeraa

Merchandise @xeraa

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Problem How much money is in swag @xeraa

Bounties / Crowdfunding @xeraa

Problem Vision and maintainablility @xeraa

Struggle @xeraa

Philosophy @xeraa

If you are claiming your startup/company is open source and you aren’t contributing to some form of upstream... then you aren’t really. Sorry not sorry. https://twitter.com/jessfraz/status/954802380125736961 @xeraa

Contributors Users Consumers @xeraa

[...] Amazon, on one hand, bashes the open source ecosystem and highlights the advantage of its own tools, while at the same time taking projects like Presto, which was developed in the open by Facebook, and turning it into a packaged, revenue-generating product (the newly announced Athena service). https://dzone.com/articles/did-amazon-just-kill-open-source @xeraa

[...] If you are MSFT and I ask you if you’ve used Redis and you say "you mean Azure Redis Cache?", that’s not a good sign. https://twitter.com/jensenharris/status/984268950136537088 @xeraa

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RedisLabs Modules: AGPL Apache 2 modified with Commons Clause (2018/08) RediSearch, Redis Graph, ReJSON, ReBloom, Redis-ML @xeraa

Without limiting other conditions in the License, the grant of rights under the License will not include, and the License does not grant to you, the right to Sell the Software. https://commonsclause.com @xeraa

Commons Clause Still OSS? Why not AGPL? @xeraa

Confusion CC Apache 2 modified with Commons Clause @xeraa

Some rabid open-source wonks accused Redis Labs of trying to trick the community into thinking that modules were open source, because they used the word “Apache.” https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/07/commons-clause-stops-open-source-abuse/ @xeraa

Be aware that the debate starting up about the Common Clause license due to Redis Labs adopting it will likely be heavily tainted by large corporations who have a lot of free labor to lose suddenly pretending to be huge champions of free software ideals. https://twitter.com/taotetek/status/1032248562116186112 @xeraa

Redis: BSD "Redis will remain BSD licensed" http://antirez.com/news/120 "Redis is not "open core" http://antirez.com/news/121 @xeraa

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AGPL server / Apache clients Server Side Public License (2018/10) @xeraa

Offering the Program as a Service. https://www.mongodb.com/licensing/server-side-public-license @xeraa

SSPL Still OSS? Why not AGPL @xeraa

MongoDB seeks to do what the FSF failed to do in 2007: close the “ASP loophole.” That is, to make the GPL (and open source) more relevant to the cloud era by ensuring those that modify and distribute open source as a cloud service contribute back. https://twitter.com/mjasay/status/1052191818937327616 @xeraa

Timing Effective today @xeraa

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If you’re unhappy with an open source project you’re entitled to a full, immediate refund to the $0.00 you paid for it. Alternatively, get involved with the project to make it better. https://twitter.com/MikeMcQuaid/status/970000490468708352 @xeraa

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Money @xeraa

Venture Capital Accelerated Development vs Business Dynamics @xeraa

Development Hobbled Product vs Starving Company @xeraa

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Releases Multiple Products vs Proprietary Plugins @xeraa

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Open Open Source vs Open Code @xeraa

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Elastic's Strategy @xeraa

All Code Open Not Open Source — Apache 2 & Elastic License @xeraa

Training Consulting @xeraa

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https://elastic.shop

Success @xeraa

Business Is Optional @xeraa

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Business Is Complicated @xeraa

It saddens me that closed source companies are acclaimed for merely putting a piece of code on GitHub, while commercial open source companies get the worse shit for any action that involves protecting their work. https://twitter.com/icecrime/status/1032155227368185856 @xeraa

Questions? Disagreement? Philipp Krenn @xeraa @xeraa