Analisis delta

11 open source business models

Critics are always claiming open source lacks a business model.
(Let’s Make a Deal is back on TV, on CBS, starring Wayne Brady as Monty Hall. Cross-promotion is agreat old business model, don’t you think?)
In fact it’s proprietary software that is lacking in imagination. They have only one business model:
1. EULA Ware — Give me money. Now go away. It doesn’twork? Go away. You want your money back? Read your EULA, and go away. You want to see the software? Go away.
This has the virtue of simplicity. People pay and you really aren’t required to give themanything. But it lacks a certain je ne sais quoi. Don’t know what that is? You must work for a proprietary software company. (Go away.)
Telling people to pay you and go away worked for an amazinglylong time. It sounds like it shouldn’t. It sounds a bit like theft. But software is a miracle, and for decades EULA Ware was the only model there was.
Open source companies, on the other hand, theyhave to use their imagination. They can’t feed people EULA Ware, so they must make money in other ways:
1. Support Ware — Pay us money and we’ll support the software. We’ll answer your questions. Orwe’ll try to. Over the phone, on the Web, whatever. Pay us enough and we’ll come over. Red Hat likes this business model.
2. Product Ware – The software is free, you just buy the box it runs in.Android phones use this. So do some network routers. It’s number two, but with a bullet.
3. Cloud Ware — Our software is in the clouds now. Pay us for what it does. The money goes into the cloud. Later itwill rain on us. SugarCRM likes this business model.
4. Project Ware — Need something done? We’ll do it with open source. Pay us for our work, and pay us for the project. IBM makes a ton on thisbusiness model.
5. SaaS Ware — Our software is SaaSy. You can rent it, by the hour, by the month, by the user. This is wildly popular. Zoho uses it. So do many other companies.
6. Ad Ware — This is a...