At this year's OSBC conference, Michael Skok of North Bridge Venture Partners will present the results of the annual Future of Open Source Survey. OpenLogic is proud to be a survey Collaborator, which basically means that we're helping get the word out and encourage participation. This survey offers a great opportunity for you to share your thoughts on the state of open source software and open source business models, the factors driving adoption of open source, and how the market will evolve over the coming years. So if you haven't already done so, take a few minutes to participate in the survey and share your perspective. And if you'd like to check out the results from last year's survey, go here.

Community Linux has become increasingly popular within the enterprise as companies strive to cut costs without compromising on functionality and reliability. Our next webinar, Choosing the Right Community Linux for Your Enterprise, will compare of the leading community Linux distributions, including CentOS, Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE. Brad Reeves, Senior Content Engineer at OpenLogic, will discuss which distributions are best suited to different uses within the enterprise as well as how to approach migrations from commercial Linux distributions like Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Other topics to be covered include:

• Community Linux in your datacenter – top server distributions
• Community Linux in your enterprise – top desktop distributions
• Best practices for enterprise involvement in Linux communities
• Options for community Linux support and maintenance help

If you're interested in evaluating community Linux distributions for use in your organization, or if you want to know which options are best suited to particular types of enterprise deployment, be sure to join us on Thursday, January 28 at 11:00 Pacific / 2:00 Eastern / 7:00 GMT. Reserve your spot today!

Earlier this week, the latest round of BusyBox GPL lawsuits were announced by the SFLC. The current offenders are Best Buy, JVC, Samsung, Westinghouse and 10 others. It seems that every few months, there are a new round of violations or lawsuits announced, so it behooves every company that distributes software or products containing software to ensure they aren't ever on the list. We announced our Open Source Fulfillment Center service earlier this week that helps companies ensure they comply with the GPL.

Jason Perlow of ZDnet gave a pretty good explanation of the challenges in complying with the GPL. Dana Blankenhorn, his colleague, talks about why those explanations are not an excuse. I want to focus on some concrete steps companies can take to avoid being the next defendants.

Assume that you may be using GPL code.

Realize that if you have software in your product, there is a high probability that you have open source software in it. There is also a HIGH probability you have GPL or LGPL code in your software, even if you think you don't.

At OpenLogic, we offer an Application Audit service for customers where our experts scan your source code to identify any open source and help you comply with the licenses. When we do an Application Auidt, we always find open source, we always find more open source than the company thinks they have, and we almost always find GPL code that the company is unaware of.

Scan all of your code – including code from outsourcers.

Even when companies have good source code control practices, it's almost impossible to get a 100% accurate list of the open source and licenses used. The main challenge is that open source often has other open source components that are bundled inside it, and that use different licenses than the primary license specified by the project. The only way to find a complete list of open source and the relevant licenses is to scan your code.

It's also critical to scan all code from outsourcers. At OpenLogic, we find that many cases of "hidden GPL" come from this source.

OpenLogic provides both services and products for scanning code to identify open source.

Understand how to fulfill the source code requirements of the GPL/LGPL.

Once you determine that you have GPL or LGPL code in your software, make sure you understand and follow all of the appropriate requirements. Some of those requirements may not be readily apparent, but they can include:

• Including source code with your product OR including an offer to get source code with your product
• Providing the exact "corresponding source" that goes with the binaries for each product and model
• Providing instructions on how to create binaries from the source – including scripts, information on the tools needed, and details on how to replace the standard code in your product with the modified code
• Providing the source code in electronic AND physical media
• Maintaining the source code for a period of time after the latest distribution of your product

OpenLogic provides an Open Source Fulfillment Center service that helps you comply with the GPL.

I also recommend A Practical Guide to GPL Compliance from the SFLC as a great primer for do-it-yourselfers.

We announced last week that we were offering support for CentOS — a community distribution of Linux that is created from the publicly available source code that is used to create RHEL.  CentOS strives to be binary compatible with RHEL and is built from the source code that is used to make RHEL — minus all of the Red Hat names, logos and trademarks.

Here's what's included in a CentOS support subscription from OpenLogic.

Technical Support with multiple service level options: OpenLogic provides business hour and 24×7 SLA options with guaranteed response times.

Access to Updates:  OpenLogic provides a service (called OpenUpdate) which notifies customers of new releases and patches for not only CentOS but 500 open source packages in the OpenLogic Certified Library.

Indemnification: OpenLogic offers limited indemnification to customers who buy CentOS support for IP actions against CentOS.

Companies that distribute software containing open source often struggle to comply with open source licenses.  (See latest lawsuit by Artifex against Palm).

Most companies that violate open source licenses do so because they haven't properly tracked the open source software they used or what open source licenses apply.  The use of code from outsourcers and the nesting of open source projects creates additional complexities for companies' compliance efforts.

Today at OpenLogic we announced a new source code scanning and license compliance solution to help companies accurately identify the open source in their code.  Scanning solutions to identify open source code have been around for several years.  However, as we used a variety of scanners to audit customer's applications, we found that these existing solutions have significant limitations.  We developed OSS Deep Discovery and the OLEX License Compliance module to address these issues.  The OpenLogic solutions provides:

• High accuracy, low noise:  Using a range of advanced matching and noise reduction techniques, OSS Deep Discovery provides pinpoint identification of the correct origin of open source code.  OSS Deep Discovery eliminates the extraneous matches that are common with previous solutions.
• Lightweight, instant-on architecture:  The OLEX License Compliance module is a SaaS-based solution that eliminates the need for additional hardware or infrastructure and OSS Deep Discovery is a lightweight downloadable client that enables you to start scanning your code within minutes.
• Value-priced:  OpenLogic's solution provides a low cost way to ensure open source compliance.  Subscriptions provide a low-entry price for small companies as well as a cost-effective "unlimited scanning" option for companies scanning large volumes of code.

Companies now have new options for scanning source code to find open source and ensure compliance with open source licenses.

After four years supporting a wide variety of open source projects for over 120 enterprises, OpenLogic is now expanding our offering to include commercial support for community distributions of Linux.  Today we announced that we are offering commercial support for CentOS as our first community Linux distro.

Here's a Q&A explaining the why's and how's of our announcement:

Why are you now offering support for Linux?

Customers come to OpenLogic to get one-stop support across all of the open source that they use.  Since applications using open source often run on Linux, our customers have asked us to offer support for community distros of Linux.  

Why are you starting with support for CentOS?

We have gotten requests for CentOS support from our customers.  In addition, CentOS is a great choice for enterprises looking for a lower cost option for Linux on their servers.

Why would a company get CentOS support from you versus other support vendors?

There are three main reasons customers get support from us — aggregation, quality and value. 

• OpenLogic is a one-stop shop for companies looking for open source support covering hundreds of open source projects – including many projects for which there is no other commercial support option.
• OpenLogic provides high-quality, expert support that doesn't stop at the boundary of a single project.  When issues span multiple open source projects and even involve the operating system, OpenLogic can still help when other vendors begin to point fingers.
• OpenLogic is value-priced compared with offerings from other vendors.  OpenLogic offers low priced support options for unlimited servers and unlimited incidents.

How is your CentOS support priced?

Our CentOS support can be bought in two ways — based on the number of servers or an unlimited server option.  The low priced unlimited server option can provide significant cost advantages for as few as 15 servers.

How do you handle bug fixes?

The CentOS project stays up-to-date with fixes from the upstream vendor.  OpenLogic will fix bugs and contribute fixes back to the community on behalf of its customers.

What is CentOS?

From the CentOS Wiki & website:

CentOS is an Enterprise Linux distribution based on the freely available sources from Red Hat(R) Enterprise Linux.

CentOS conforms fully with the upstream vendors redistribution policies and aims to be 100% binary compatible. (CentOS mainly changes packages to remove upstream vendor branding and artwork).  CentOS is free.

 

CentOS is a trademark of CentOS Ltd.

Red Hat is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc.

As budgets and priorities for next year begin to take shape, companies of all sizes are looking to open source software to find ways to stretch software budgets without limiting innovation or productivity. We'll discuss the top strategies for using open source to get more done for less in our next webinar, Top 10 Ways to Stretch Your Budget by Using More Open Source Software in 2010. This webinar will be held on Wednesday, December 9 at 11:00 Pacific / 2:00 Eastern / 7:00 GMT.

In this webinar Kim Weins and Rod Cope will explore the process of enterprise open source software adoption from the perspective of three key stakeholders within the typical organization: developers, architects, and CIOs. We'll examine the unique challenges and goals of each of these roles, giving you tips on:

• How to overcome internal roadblocks to the use of open source
• How to meet the legal requirements of open source
• What are the hottest technology areas for open source that you should consider

Whether you're a developer or architect hoping to get more done with open source or a CIO looking to cut costs, this is one webinar you won't want to miss. Be sure to join us on December 9 and find out how you can make the most with open source in 2010.

In March of this year I switched to OSX, running on a shiny new 17” MacBook Pro. I wrote about it here. I prepared myself for the change, and I was committed to giving it a fair shot for my computing time.

The initial feeling of running OSX was one just like driving a brand new car. Everything was shiny, worked well, and it had the new OS smell. Oh, there were some unsettling moments early on, like when I realized that the OS was not case-sensitive. ( Leopard ). But, overall it seemed like it was going to be UNIX enough for me. Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of people who know UNIX far better than I. I am just saying that it is my preferred environment, and as such, I expect UNIX to behave in a certain fashion. Now that I have given OSX a fair shot, I feel that I can properly give the OS a proper evaluation.

The good part was the hardware. By far the MacBook Pro is the most solid laptop I have ever used. It is fast, the screen is bright and clear. I love the keyboard, and I also purchased an external keyboard, so I could have the feel of the laptop keyboard all the time on all my computers. I can not say enough good things about the keyboard. The touchpad is awesome, it is what touchpads should have always been. Click anywhere is great, response is great. Hardware grade : A-

What did I like about the software? Oh, oh… I got one.. I liked the office suite. I have not used MS Office for many years, I have used many open source alternatives, and have settled in on OpenOffice handling my day to day word processing and spreadsheet duties. When I got the MacBook, I also got a copy of iWork. I liked that it was very clean and uncomplicated in presentation and use. For simple word processing and spreadsheets it worked fine. Software grade : C+

Working in OSX always felt like something was missing. The context switching of the menu bar with the application drove me crazy. I want one thing that is for my Windowing environment and the context of my apps to stay with my application. Of all the idiosyncrasies that come along for the ride with a MacBook + OSX that is the one that I could not overlook. Have you ever heard a Mac guy say “It just works!”? Well, they are lying. A lot of stuff works out of the box, and the stuff that doesn't is a pain in the butt. The Apple faithful make a lot of excuses about what doesn't work, or they have a band of wood nymphs that crank out apple script to patch and band aid the OS. My biggest gripe about the OS is that it is not case sensitive. It is supposed to be UNIX!!! Unix is case sensitive. See how I typed the word Unix in the last two sentences? Unix can tell the difference, OSX can not. I know there is an option under Snow Leopard that if you wish to reformat your drive, it can be case sensitive now, but out of the shoot, nope…

Did my printer at home work with OSX? Nope. This is not Apple's fault, just an example of how things just don't always work.

I really like music, and I have a large digital collection of music. That should sum up why I dislike iTunes and refuse to use it.

Did I say that my biggest gripe was the case sensitive thing? I was wrong, the biggest issue is spinning beach balls. OMG!!! I am just trying to switch between one terminal session to another, and I get get a spinning ball. Click on firefox, spinning ball. Click on netbeans – beachball. Fair enough, netbeans is a big java app, switch to vim… beachball. You gotta be kidding me! I wait out the service pack 1, errr, I mean software update. Surely it will fix this beach ball mania. NOPE!! This is seriously impacting my work. I can no longer use the Macbook Pro as my primary work system. I switch back to my desktop system ( runing Linux ) for my day to day chores. I use the MacBook as my secondary system, reading mail, and web surfing. Guess what? I still get beach balls. I have an old 486 laptop with puppy linux on it that can handle email and web surfing. While we are in a big push at work to get a release done, I vow to hold out until there is time to remedy the situation. There is only a couple of weeks or so to go until the next version of Ubuntu is coming out, and I am ready to try it out, I can make it until then, I tell myself.

WRONG!! The wireless networking on the MacBook Pro has stopped working. Now it is not even good for email and web surfing. I have an expensive aluminum hand warmer now. Stupid Mac.

I think that it must be the hardware, but how can I tell? I hook up and external drive and do a time machine backup to it. ( Oh, just so you don't think I am a complete hater, time machine is awesome. )

Then I prep the system to dual boot. I start here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookPro

But, decided that I needed to wait for Karmic Koala. I got a secondary partition created, and installed Windows 7. In the spirit of competition and fair play, I installed Windows 7 on another Dell laptop and in a VM on my Linux desktop.

In a head to head evaluation of OSX and Windows 7, Windows 7 wins. Once I installed my tool chain on Windows 7, it worked well, without any issues. I did have to install a few more things, but the installs were clean, fast and simple. I installed the same tools that I had on OSX, and they all worked.

Did you catch that? I installed… how you might ask? The wireless refused to work under OSX, it claimed that my wireless at home was more foreign than that alien network that Jeff Goldblum hacked in Independence day. Windows 7 seems to think it is fine. The hardware is quite obviously fine. I do a quick test. Reboot to OSX. No network. Stupid Mac. Reboot to Windows. Works.

If I were on the TV commercial where the lady is going to OSX from XP, I would tell her to run to the store and get Windows 7. She will be much happier in the end. If those were her only choices, I would leave it there, but there is another choice. I am a supporter of Open Source. While Windows 7 has a pleasing look and feel, and is better than OSX, it is still… windows. It has a lot of the issues of it's predecessors and a few new problems of it own. The only real choice at this point is which Linux distribution should you use. Ubuntu.. ( I really don't want to hear from you BSD guys… really. )

Karmic Koala is out. The day it became available, my torrent client was humming. ( ktorrent )

I bypassed all the dual boot, how to's, and stuck the install disk into my MacBook Pro, and told it to take over the whole disk. Guess what? IT JUST WORKED!!! Hahahahahahaha…

Ok, one confession. The hardware version of the MacBook Pro that I have (5,2) has an issue with the sound driver that Karmic installed. I have it fixed now, by installing the latest alsa driver. Yes, it took some time and research ( 2 hours ) and I know, you Grandma would never do that. I would never suggest to your Gran that she go pay the Apple tax for the hardware, and then put Linux on it. I leave that to geeks like me. I would tell your Granny to buy a Dell, or HP and install linux on that. She will be happy, and it will all work.

I now have Ubuntu 9.10 running on my MacBook Pro. Gnome-desktop, kubuntu-destop, xubuntu-desktop are all installed. I like desktop options, but prefer KDE 4. I can switch between apps, terminals, connect to the network and print. I have not seen one spinning beach ball. I am much more productive. I am so happy to have Amorok back to manage my music, and KDE to manage my desktop, and konsole as a terminal application, and, and, and… I am just so much happier.

The summary. 9 months on OSX were not wasted, but they were not as productive. If I was starting the “switch” experiment today, I would try Windows 7 for 9 months rather than OSX.

Would I buy another Mac for myself, just for the hardware? No. While the trackpad is cool, other companies have caught up on the piece of hardware. The keyboard may be enough to make me come back to the hardware, but I doubt it.

I did buy a Mac ( iMac ) for my wife, and she loves it. But, I think I do as much systems administration task with her on Mac as I did when she was on Linux. My kids still use Linux at home, and Mac at school .

Will I try OSX again? Maybe. Never say never. But, they will have to make some big changes, or, release a cool Mac Tablet. :-)

Final Thoughts.

Linux is a better operating system.

KDE 4 is the best looking window management system.

Linux makes me happy.

I know everyone's been saying it: The economic downturn will drive more people to open source. Because OpenLogic sells support on 500 projects as well as open source governance services and solutions, we get a very broad view of enterprise use of open source. After analyzing our Q3 and 2009 results, I've seen the data, and I'm here to tell you that open source is looking good.

Our press release hits some of the highlights, but I wanted to share some more details here.

Companies are choosing to pay for open source support

Our business has been growing strongly since initial funding, but the current economic downturn has caused an inflection point. In Q3 we've blown away our previous highs for number of new customers and number of transactions. In the first 3 quarters of 2009, we've seen growth in revenue from new customers up over 60% from 2008.

This growth shows that not only are more people using open source, but more people are choosing to pay for open source support or governance solutions. We tend to gain customers as open source usage becomes more accepted, broad and pervasive in an organization. Some have said that companies may choose to self-support open source as they become more familiar with it, but we've seen the opposite in our business. Our results indicate that more and more companies are interested in stepping up to pay for support when it's at the right price and delivered in the right way.

Many more people are proactively looking for open source support & governance

We generate our new customers through a combination of inbound leads (pay per click, organic search), and outbound marketing (webinars, telemarketing). The number of inbound leads is always an interesting number, since it represents prospects that come to us of their own volition and is a good indicator of how many people are looking to buy open source support & governance.

The number of inbound leads has been steadily growing, but starting in Jan 2009 we saw a jump and starting in Jun 2009 we saw an even larger increase. We are now getting 77% of our new customers from inbound leads — up significantly in both numbers and percentages from a year ago. This indicates that more companies are proactively looking for solutions unprompted by our outbound marketing efforts.

Open source is spreading beyond early-adopter industries

We've always had a lot of strength in early adopter industries — financial services and technology being the top two. In 2009, we've seen a striking increase in the breadth of industries in our customer base. We are seeing strong growth in a variety of industries, including some (retail, healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, energy) that are not always known for being on the bleeding edge. This indicates that open source usage is spreading in industries that don't operate on the leading edge of technology.

The data from our results is reinforcing the idea that open source has grown as the economy has struggled — it's use is spreading to new industries and spreading within organizations. Even more importantly for open source vendors, we have not seen a flight toward self-support, but rather an increased willingness to pay for commercial support of open source.

Join the conversation and let us know what you've been seeing in your open source business.

A recent survey we did of enterprises using open source, showed that they are not big fans of the open-core business model.  Recent blogs by Matthew Aslett, Jay Lyman, John Mark Walker center around this issue of the future of the open core business model.

At OpenLogic, we are a VC-backed company that has developed a business using a "services-based" model around open source.  Our definition of services-based matches with Matthew Aslett's.

By “services” we are not simply referring to support services, training, implementation services and consulting. The term also includes software delivered as a service, and features delivered as a managed service – such as via Red Hat Network. It includes anything you can think of, in fact, that can be considered a service, rather than a product.

I wanted to share with you a few of the lessons we've learned as we've developed this services-based model in the hopes that it may help others in that are considering a services model for their open source businesses.

1. Expand your picture of "product"

In the old, proprietary software world, your product was a piece of software. In the world of "open-core", most vendors just split the software into two pieces — the free open source part and the proprietary part.  They then sell the proprietary part just like any proprietary software.  That may be comfortable, but it can also force you to act just like a proprietary software vendor so that you can control and own the IP.

If you consider a model where the software is completely open source, you need to look beyond the software to monetize your business.  If you expand your view to the "whole product", you now have a variety of other options that customers value that you can use to monetize your business  (channels, add ons, partnerships, services, etc). At OpenLogic, we've built our business around several of these "whole product" elements:

• Certified library of open source software
• Notification and updates on open source changes
• Indemnification on open source software
• SLA Support on 500 projects
• Consulting services
• Training
• SaaS Open Source Governance platform

Our value is in being a one-stop shop with expertise across many open source projects.

Other companies have also figured out ways to monetize other "whole product" elements:

• Certification of open source with other products (RedHat, SLES)
• Hosting of open source software (SugarCRM)
• Add-on management tools (SpringSource, MuleSource)
• Commercial licenses (MySQL)
• Backport of patches (RedHat)

When you consider your business model — look broadly at your whole product to find the best way to generate revenue.

2. Learn to live without lock-in

At OpenLogic, we offer support on hundreds of open source projects — some of which have competing support vendors.  At any given point, a customer may decide that one of those vendors offers a better support offering.  When the contract comes up for renewal, if we haven't delivered value or provided outstanding support, we likely won't get a renewal.

Instead of fearing this, we embrace it.  It means that we need to stay focused every day on delivering value, offering competitive pricing, solving customer issues quickly and accurately and ensuring we meet customer needs. 

Instead of agonizing over the fact that customers could switch, we just get on with it.  Lots of other businesses across many industries are in that same situation.  If they can build successful businesses, so can we.

3. Build your business so you can price for value

Open source is typically priced lower than competing proprietary products.  However, when you build a business around completely open source software (not open-core), you likely will have vendors who compete with you on  support, services and training for the product. When you are operating in a competitive landscape, you better make sure your pricing is competitive.

To do that, you need to examine all of the costs associated with traditional, proprietary software and determine how you can lower the costs of your business.  Open community development models (as opposed to a vendor-controlled community) can save on development costs.  Open source can also reduce sales and marketing costs.  However, you need to go beyond these obvious areas to find other ways to operate differently.

At OpenLogic, we developed a unique federated support model that aligns our costs to actual customer issues.  We also have developed lead generation and sales processes that are much lower cost than expensive enterprise sales processes.  The specifics of your business will vary, but there are many opportunities to structure your business in a way that you spend less and can price for value.

4. Re-think your misconceptions about margins

Many people from the proprietary software world, including VCs, have the misconception that "services" businesses have lower margins.  The misconception comes from equating "services" with "professional services".  Once you realize that a "services" business goes above and beyond traditional professional services, the picture on margin changes drastically.

Margins on support business are very good.  Look at RedHat's margin (over 80%) as an example of this.  If you look at proprietary vendors like Oracle, their business is built around making money from their support and maintenance offerings.  

Once you let go of the idea that services always means lower margins, you'll open up many more opportunities for your business model.