Open Source Software: Awesome Edition

Jeff Atwood ran into some issues with the multiple editions of windows.

And what are we paying for? The privilege of flipping the magic bits in the software that say “I am blah edition!” It’s all so.. anticlimactic. All that effort, all that poring over complex feature charts and stressing out about pricing plans, and for what? Just to get the one simple, stupid thing I care about — using all the memory in my server. Perhaps these complaints, then, point to one unsung advantage of open source software: Open source software only comes in one edition: awesome.

link: Coding Horror: Oh, You Wanted “Awesome” Edition

It seems like I was just talking about this in response to a previous article of Jeff’s.

The catch is for the companies that do hit the inflection point. The licensing models employed by most large software companies like Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, etc, are built around getting the mid tier companies on their platform at relatively low initial costs. Their business model bets on the idea a certain percentage of those companies will hit an exponential growth curve. This curve will require an expansion of their IT infrastructure which will put them into a different price class. Through a combination of special features, training/hiring investment, and platform lock in, these companies make it less attractive to move to a competitor than to pay the high licensing fees required by the expansion. It is a tightrope that they walk well. In short, they lock the companies in early with entry level deals, only to rape them later.

I guess the take away is that Microsoft is not made up of a bunch of dummies. I congratulate them on finding a way to squeeze more money out of people and have them say “Thank You Sir! May I have another?”.

I am glad that Jeff has seen the wisdom of open source software. If we could just figure out how to make that argument to managers before they get sucked in.