The Rails Wheels licencing system and Open Source

[Michael Tiemann]

On Thu, Sep 4, 2008 at 2:19 AM, Mark James <mrj at advancedcontrols.com.au>wrote:

> So Red Hat Linux is commercial Open Source software that is
> associated with support subscriptions that are effectively optional,
> both because binary-compatible alternatives are available, and
> because the software continues to function after a subscription
> expires.
>
> The Red Hat system wouldn't work for Rails Wheels because
> we list less complex software that calls for more development
> work than support work. And the Rails Wheels system wouldn't
> work for Red Hat because of Linux's Pollockian ownership.


The Red Hat model is not the only commercially successful model.  The
company I founded, Cygnus, was based largely on developing free (GPL)
software for $$$.  We built that company to $25M/year in annual revenue
before being acquired by Red Hat (who also had approx $25M/year in revenue
at the time).  You can read how we made Cygnus work in the O'Reilly book
Open Sources.  My chapter is freely downloadable, and gives revenue figures,
profits, and a detailed analysis of what worked and what didn't.

The Red Hat model has proved itself to be very scalable ($500M+/year and
counting), but we still bid and win GNU development contracts, and funded
development is still a part of Red Hat's business.

M
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