As open source software (OSS) gains functionality, software vendors are being forced to adopt it in their offerings and find ways to make money from it, says Novell strategic business development manager James Thomas.
Speaking yesterday at the Southern African Non-Governmental Organisation Network ICT discussion forum, called Thetha (a Xhosa word for talk), Thomas said OSS was providing users with choice.
"As OSS improves, so users are provided with the option of choosing OSS that is either as good as proprietary software, or good enough to meet their needs, even it doesn`t offer quite the same functionality.
"Just as VHS video machines and generic medicines provided greater choice, so the software market is being expanded, giving the user a wider choice, and forcing the vendors to change their pricing models," he said.
While OSS is free or gives the user freedom by granting access to source code, Thomas said money still makes the world go round and as OSS gains functionality, vendors will make aggressive moves into the open source market in an attempt to make money out of it.
"Take desktops, for example. There is a dramatic cost saving of around R5 000 per PC if they are not purchased with Microsoft Windows and Office, and instead have an operating system like Linux and an Open Office installed. However, while there is a cost saving in the purchasing price of OSS, vendors will find other ways to make money out of the open source market."
Thomas said the tactic of making basic versions of software freeware or shareware is being applied to vendors` OSS offerings. The initial offering is therefore free, but only has basic functionality. If users wish to have the added functionality, they will have to pay for it.
And just because the operating system may have a minimal cost attached to it, that doesn`t mean people won`t charge to develop and sell software to run on open source operating systems, said Thomas.
"As the open source market expands, software will be written for open source platforms and people will charge for it. Big ERP systems like SAP are also being converted and corporates will have the chance of buying a Linux version of the product."
Therefore, while money is involved, OSS will eventually move towards a proprietary type environment for the very reason that it makes money, he noted.
"What will most probably be different in a future where OSS software is a widespread reality is that customers will have more of a say in what vendors charge for software."
In the past, vendors have made a lot of money by selling intellectual property, even though the cost of manufacturing that software is fairly minimal.
"OSS is forcing this to change and the ratio of what vendors charge and the actual cost of manufacturing is likely to change substantially.
"It`s important to realise that vendors will still charge for software and support, but what is charged for in say five years time and the cost of it may be very different to what it is now."
Share