We’ve all heard the news: JBoss has received $10 million in funding and now it’s time to sit back and mull it over.Without a doubt this infusion of capital is a signal of confidence for JBoss Group. But is this investment a good thing for open source? Not an unimportant question for those of us who have decided to use open source in our enterprise applications. Read the article at LinuxWorld by Kirk Pepperdine.
The Commercialization of Open Source
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Open source is open source. Whether it’s commercial or not does not matter: there is such a thing as commercial open source software. Just like there is such a thing as voluntarily written closed source software (most Windows freeware).
Open source is not just about making money, instead, it is about managing the money.
Apparently the word “open source” is a sponsered link to–of all things–Visual Studio .NET training programs on the Microsoft Developers’ Network website.
I guess that happens when you use Microsoft’s “free software” Internet Explorer. =P
RedHat secured $500 million in investment at the beginning of January 2004 (http://lwn.net/Articles/65230/). I’d’ve thought that’d be a much better example to draw upon, but since Kirk Pepperdine mentions RedHat’s IPO in 1999 but not that, I guess he somehow managed to miss it.
Open source software is finally getting the recognition that it has deserved. What would be better than getting paid to write open source software.