Any Open Source Developer will tell you: in the end Open Source Software will be better than any commercially available package. And commercial software will go away. It’s completely unavoidable. Except it’s not. And it never will be.
The argument here is that as more developers flock to developing Open Source software, over time all things we be available AS open source. Given enough time, all functions and features will be open sourced by one developer or another. It will be just as good as any commercial product And when it’s available as Open Source, people will use it. Given enough time. Like, forever.
Listen to the in-crowd of the new media, and they’ll tell you: Content is King baby! All you need is really excellent and original blog posts. Success is bound to come your way some time. Wrong!
What’s the link between these two? Well, both these arguments boil down to: if you make a good product, the people will come. Which has been shown time and time again - in both the off-line and the online world to be a fallacy. Better does not necessarily mean bigger.
A good product is not enough. In some cases it is not even necessary. What you need is good Marketing. Great PR. A good and focussed sales team. Because what will make people use your product is one very simple but fundamental marketing principle: trust. And to gain trust, you need much more than just a good product.
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5 responses so far ↓
King Rat // April 7, 2008 at 8:10 am
Open source does not make something a better product. I’m surprised that a lot of open source products even work, considering the utter crap the products actually are. Open source usually comes with a concurrent lack of product development discipline.
Erik Hare // April 7, 2008 at 10:03 pm
You mean … kids who think that the fundamental laws of economics, physics, and sexual attraction won’t apply to their generation are just … WRONG?
Oh, that’s gonna hurt when it hits reality at terminal velocity, man. Hurt way bad.
Bill // April 8, 2008 at 1:04 am
King Rat: You are clueless. We practice a more stringent development and test cycle than most non-open source commercial products. In fact, our open source products have commercial versions - fully tested, certified, and work great. Before you make such assumptions, better do some more in depth research. Open source does what proprietary systems don’t: offer the users an opportunity to customize faster and easier than proprietary solutions.
Mr. Open // April 8, 2008 at 1:16 am
Thats your opinion. What I seen when I first got Ubuntu working is a chance to actually see how things work. Sure Linux is much harder to get working because its not laid out on a silver platter for you. But if you want you can make any decent linux version way better that xp because like linus said long time ago..
Its yours to do what you want with it.
And many are doing just that right.. soon enough linux will top any operating system out there because its free and it has every possible feature, and even a few that xp or vista will never have.
Now that Linux has reached the level where anyone can install it no problem, things are about to change….
Roel Guldemond // April 17, 2008 at 6:39 am
In 1980 I read in McArthy’s marketing book: “No path leads to the better mousetrap-factory”. Last 28 years I found this many times prooved.
Last March I was trying to get ATTENTION for training on Open Source. At 17 dutch schools/universities with 60 posters. So about 5000 potential youngsters studying multimedia/design/information technology I was trying to show INTEREST in learn more on Open Source. After about 50 inquieries by students showing some DESIRE, not even 5 people took ACTION to subscribe for the event.
I do agree:
a) Open Source is in many ways better software than all closed software I have been implementing last 25 years (e.g. I have been SAP-consultant since 1990).
b) A good product is not good enough.
- SAP??? That’s the multinational softwarecompany with the excellent marketing-department. It is said that if this SAP-marketing-department gets the task to turn the americans into smokers: the americans are going to smoke
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