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Open Source Blog
Mixed bizness* - how to make money from open source
November 06, 2006
MySQL CEO, Marten Mickos, has an interesting article listing the 13 different open source business models he has identified. The interesting thing to note is that they all rely more or less on a mixed source approach.
As Marten writes “I recently got a question of whether MySQL employs a hybrid business model, and after thinking about
it, I realised that ALL open source-based businesses are hybrid in one way or another. Open source is clearly the best production method for software, but it is not a business model in itself.”
Marten’s 13 business models, and examples, are as follows:
“1. Software is free but we need donations and subsidies to survive (Apache Software Foundation, Eclipse, ObjectWeb)
2. Software is free but we sell ads and placements (Mozilla)
3. Software is free but if you embed it in closed source, you better pay a fee (Trolltech, DB4Objects, Funambol, MySQL, etc.)
4. Software is free but services are not (Covalent)
5. Software is free but on-going maintenance, monitoring and provision of binaries is not (Red Hat)
6. Software is free but some enterprise features are not (SugarCRM, Zimbra, JasperSoft)
7. Software is free but we built a closed-source product around it (EnterpriseDB, GreenPlum)
8. Software is free but hardware is not (Sun, Asterisk/Digium)
9. Software is free but we sell everything else on the planet, including closed source software (IBM)
10. Software is free but that's not our real business (Ruby on Rails, individual contributors, etc.)
11. Software is free but we regret it (Borland with Interbase)
12. Software is free because we dumped it and don't want to see it any more (any good examples?)
13. Software is free because we want to drive web traffic (Google GWT, Yahoo YUI)”
Comments
I dont agree with this Free and the nagatives associated with it. This is a new business model, with more on consulting rather than box sales
I'm not sure what negatives you're referring to. The software is free as in beer (and as in speech) in these cases, but clearly the extras are not. That is, indeed, the nature of the new (multiple) business models.
Nice article thanks for posting this. I might add "Software is free but you can hire me or buy my company" (individual contributors, start-up companies)
I don't necessarily see all these as "hybrid". I would just call them open source business models.
Example of #12 (IMHO): JXplorer by CA... http://www.pegacat.com/jxplorer/
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