One of the things that intrigued me when I started my journey with Linux was the concept of ‘open source.’ Coming from a world of proprietary software, I never considered that the concept of freely shared, widely available source code was something that could actually exist yet alone be profitable.
This took me a little while to wrap my head around. Free software?? How do these companies make money?
The way I ended up figuring it out; think of it like eating at your local restaurant. You often don’t get to see all the ingredients that make up your favourite meal; but you end up with the finished product delivered to your table. In the open source method (in this example); you would see exactly what went into your meal – the ingredients, the preparation steps, even the handwritten ‘gotchas’ that went into it. So why would you pay for it?
You’d pay for your meal because you’re investing in the assurance that your meal will be top quality. If you mess up your dinner at home, there’s nobody to take it back to, nobody who you can suggest improvements to. At the restaurant however, you can ask the chef to change your meal if it’s not up to standard – and that’s why open source companies are so successful! Bringing it back to information technology, this is the same as sharing the source code of software. The ‘do it yourself’ option is free – and wow there is some incredible open source technology out there; git, stackrox, and fedora to name a few. The magic happens, however, when someone curates these incredible technologies and ensures that they work to solve business problems out of the collective box; then the end users don’t have to expend energy establishing and maintaining their technology stack.
The use of community-sourced development in technology is not a new idea; it dates back to the earliest Linux days – but the commercialisation of it has been a very interesting journey. When you think about it in the context of the restaurant; it becomes very clear where the ‘secret sauce’ is. The cost is in the guarantee of work and the services associated with that – anyone can find the ingredients, but who has the time to learn the trade secrets and develop the skills to become a restaurant-grade chef?
I guess that’s why I love open source – by embracing the community rather than trying to keep it out; the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts and punters are encouraged to be the change they want to see in the world.
Until next time!
Shep
Shep's Blog 