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Is Open Source Really Just as Good?

Posted by tadelste on · 2 comments
CIO; By Michael Jung 		Mail this story
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One of the great things about being a VC is that I am always meeting new and exciting companies that are focused on changing the landscape of enterprise technology. So how do you actually meet these companies, you might wonder? There are literally thousands of startups, all vying to be the next big thing. Amongst VCs, everyone has a different approach, but we’ve often found our best investments when we do two things: define a trend where innovation creates a disruption in the status quo, and listen intently to what customers (or prospective customers) are saying and doing.

In the enterprise, there is probably no greater disruption than what is going on with open source. The momentum of Linux, Apache, JBoss and MySQL is accelerating, which I am sure you already know. I won’t bore you with the myriad issues around deploying open source related technologies in the enterprise, whether that be about licensing, security, manageability, etc. I’ll leave that to the folks that are paid to write about this stuff. [Editor’s note: the latest blog post by CIO magazine’s Christopher Koch is a good dialogue on open source.] But I will leave you with one thought, which is this: if you can buy something that is at a minimum just as good as the alternatives at half the price (or less), why wouldn’t you? After all, we’re talking about technology, not luxury cars here.

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Comments (2)

jimf ·
Pretty much what I and a bunch of other people have been saying for a long time. In this case the penny pinching corporate mindset works for us. Sooner or later they'll come around to it if it has the same feature and is cheaper. The difficulty is convincing people in this culture that money does not always equate to quality.
helios ·
The difficulty is convincing people in this culture...

And not just at the enterprise level Jim, but I am guessing you know that already, based on your previous posts. I will tell you that I am asked at least 6 times a week "If this Linux thing is so good, why is it free?" I take a Deep breath, boil down history of foss and gnu/linux, watch eyes glaze over and listen for regular breathing patterns that would indicate the first stage of sleep.

It does have its challenges.

helios

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