I’m trying to create a pithy statement as to how commercial open source firms are superior to traditional (closed source) software development firms. For that, I need to define what the specific effects are that using an open source go-to-market strategy has on the bottom line. (If your answer is “it’s the community, naturally”—that’s not the intent of my question.) So far, I’ve been enumerating the benefits by business function, that is:
A commercial open source firm can
- go to market faster
- with a superior product
- at lower overall costs, and
- sell it more easily
than possible for traditional closed source competitors. I think that’s it: Faster, better, cheaper, and more easily.
As you can see, I’ve basically enumerated the various business functions as you might find them on a firm’s income statement. (1) and (2) address product management and engineering, (3) addresses pretty much all business functions, and (4) addresses marketing and sales. Anything that I should add? Rearrange things? Take a totally different perspective? Thanks for any thoughts you might have!