MUST READ: Don’t let NSA paranoia destroy your productivity

Topic: Open Source

Compare

Open source still fragmented

Summary: Who are the leaders? I have no idea. The game has just started. Who do you think the leaders are?

Dana Blankenhorn

By Dana Blankenhorn for Linux and Open Source |

Evans Data has a new report out saying the open source market remains fragmented.

The whole premise of the study shows just how little most analysts know about open source as a concept.

The whole idea behind open source is to break down hierarchies. If you're really good, if you gain a key position within a project that is gaining market traction, you can now not only get work, but become a company in your own right.

This is something that is just starting to dawn on many open source developers. A few years ago they were happy to just have jobs. Now they're looking to get really good jobs. (This was the JBoss business strategy from the start -- grab stars by offering big salaries.)

But the next step is not consolidation. I think it's atomization.

Software development, like anything else, lives by the 80-20 rule. The top people dominate. This means these top people are worth a whole lot more than others on the open market. This is something that is just now starting to dawn on people.

All this is sort of clear after looking at how Evans came to its conclusions, and its specific results. The company surveyed 400 developers and asked who does the best job. This yielded the names Red Hat, IBM, Novell and Sun. Those aren't really the leaders. They're the guys who put out the most press releases.

Who are the leaders? I have no idea. The game has just started. Who do you think the leaders are?

Topic: Open Source

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Talkback

6 comments
Log in or register to join the discussion

  • Who did you expect?

    "The company surveyed 400 developers and asked who does the
    best job. This yielded the names Red Hat, IBM, Novell and Sun.
    Those aren't really the leaders. They're the guys who put out the
    most press releases."

    When the article linked to says :

    [quote]
    When over 400 Open Source developers were asked to name the
    company that provides the best open source software offerings,
    no company was mentioned by more than 12 percent.
    [quote]

    They were asked who had the best open source offerings.
    Clearly Red Hat (RHEL), Novell (SUSE), IBM (Eclipse), Sun
    (OpenOffice, Java Enterprise, openSolaris) would take plenty of
    the top honours for best offerings.

    They're not just putting out press releases they have products in
    the market used by millions. Who did you expect?
    Richard Flude
    Reply Vote

  • OPEN and flexible, not CLOSED and stuck.

    Quote "Evans Data has a new report out saying the open source market remains fragmented."
    It in effect should be fragmented, it's OPEN, lots of separate companies/opportunities. Not CLOSED and stuck.
    zdnet reader
    Reply Vote

    • I agree

      There is an assumption among analysts that every market moves toward monopoly. It is a part of the economic model that politicians hate to reflect upon, but it's accepted.

      I don't think that's necessarily true in a true open source economy. Time will tell, but I say it ain't necessarily so.
      DanaBlankenhorn
      Reply Vote

  • The beauty of Open Source

    is that it follows Dr. Demming's continual improvement process. If someone gets big (like JBoss), but stops innovating - then another project will take its "place". If you try to change open-source into a pay-for-software, then a fork will appear and continual improvement will advance from there.
    Roger Ramjet
    Reply Vote

    • correct

      That seems to be the main thing with Open Source. Getting stale, a fork can appear.
      Getting purchased by a big fish - a fork can appear. Take for example the Oracle talk of takeovers. In my eyes, instead of it removing some open source projects as competition, it would actually increase Oracle's demise, as they would "waste" their shareholders money purchasing a product, and the product they thought they swallowed can instantly reappear (they can't stop the code being used by other groups) as another (or more) competitor(s) as forks.
      That is the beauty of Open Source, as you said.
      zdnet reader
      Reply Vote

  • Cost is not the main driver...

    ...for developers. Messages and Audiences are two pieces of the
    same puzzle. If you present a message to it's corresponding
    counterpart, things hit home, things make sense.

    Ask a CFO the same question and cost will undoubtedly rank much
    higher.

    Therefore every message is right and wrong, depending on who
    you present it to.
    cay_z
    Reply Vote
CNET Join | Log In | Privacy | Cookies Close