Open Source Blog

One man’s code dump is another man’s innovation opportunity
February 16, 2007

It’s a standing joke in the CBR office that IT services is where server vendors go to die (I won’t name names but you can probably think of a number of second tier server vendors that have postponed their demise by becoming services vendors).

It was in this context that the phrase "open source is where bad software goes to die" was uttered in the office this week, suggesting that a desperate attempt to inject some life into a stalled project is a driver for some proprietary firms releasing code as open source.

A new report from The 451 Group suggests that this is indeed one of the reasons why software vendors go open. That needn’t necessarily be a bad thing, however.

According to the analyst firm:

"451 analysts found that the justification for a vendor going open varies, but in most cases it relates to competitive pressure in one form or another – the desire to retain or grow market share, the perceived value of first-mover advantage, entering an existing and mature market or, in the case of a distressed business model, where open source provides a final alternative to generate demand."

All of which recalls a blog posting by the then JBoss CEO, Marc Fleury about what he called "strip mining and waste dumping in open source".

"Eager to be part of the open source wave, the vendor identifies some technology that is inferior or of limited value to them, and they dump (oops...sorry...they 'donate') it into open source," he wrote.

"There has been so much waste dumping going on lately that we may very well need an 'Open Source landfill' to deal with the cleanup of all of this waste and its damage to our environment."

As I wrote at the time "Whether this is fair criticism depends on how much value one sees in the code that has been made available. While it is undeniable that some vendors seem to think that open sourcing an aging product will prop up shrinking market share, it is perhaps a little unfair to criticize all such donations.

"The very fact that the code is out there (if it has been licensed under an appropriate license) means that it has the potential to provide an opportunity for enterprising developers or businesses to make use of it."

*This delightful scene greeted me on my way to work this morning, triggering the "waste dump" train of thought. It also made me laugh.