The Economist on open source models

The Economist magazine takes a look at open source software development models and the companies currently gaining benefits from it – Google, Amazon, Yahoo! and others. They take a look at several popular open source projects and how they are currently coded.

First, there’s a limited contribution model by Firefox team.

First, there are around 400 contributors trusted to offer code into the source tree, usually after a two-stage review. Farther out, thousands of people submit software patches to be sized up (a useful way to establish yourself as new programming talent). An even larger ring includes the tens of thousands of people who download the full source code each week to scrutinise bits of it.

Then there’s a company model, where no outsiders are allowed, employed by MySQL AB:

It rarely accepts code from outside developers (the complexity of database software makes it less amenable to being independently cobbled together). Instead, MySQL employs 60 developers, based in 25 countries, of whom 70% work from home.

Third, Wikipedia contributing model is analyzed, where anyone who feels like it can contribute.

Posted Sunday, March 19th, 2006 under Programming, Technology.
  • http://www.eit.in eIT

    Nice article, thanks

    Making revenues from free & open source software is one of the most frequently asked questions these days. While there have been a few successful examples of companies (like MySQL, Red Hat etc) which are making money, I’d surmise that these are still very early days for open source revenue & profit models.

    While open source as an operational paradigm certainly has been having exceptional success against proprietary and closed-software models in the recent past, in my opinion, a lot more thought need to be given and experimentations done before the emergence of viable revenue models for the free & open source models that can successfully compete with the current proprietary software revenue model. Some specifics of the business models are emerging fast, but it will take a few years for the market to test each of these out and hopefully, the fittest will survive.

    A site that focuses exclusively on revenue models from open source is Follars.com – Free, Open-source Dollars!

    Ec @ IT, Software Database @ eIT.in