So we have this discussion at work regarding Open Source Software (OSS) and making money / having a business modell. Thouse who are against me (which are quite a few) thinks that OSS is not the right way to go, and those companies who embrace this type of softwarebusiness will end up bankrupt.
I – of course – disagree and thinks that we haven’t really seen what the OSS-business format really is. I do think how ever that not all is right with todays model.
And what is wrong? Well. Let’s look at the sound recording program called Jokosher. For a while there was momentum in the development of this product, then all of a sudden the projects halted. Now six months has gone by and not much has really happened. The reason: The developers behind the project got busy with some other project.
What if there was some money involved in the Jokosher-project. Would the developers work on another project then? I would not think so. Which is why I think that there must be some sort of paying for the software for those who wants to get some more out of the software.
Maybe the people behind the Komodo IDE program is on the right track. They have two versions of their program. One that is just the needed part of a program for developing PHP-pages (for instance) and if you want some more out of the program, you buy the IDE. Maybe the same businessmodel could work for the Jokosher-project. For the most general sound editing you can download and install the program, but if you want more advanced features you put some dollars on the table.
We’ll see what the future holds for the OSS community.
