On 06 6, 07, at 9:03 PM, jumbz tayamen wrote: > The key to any (profitable) technology business is propietorship. You > develop and (solely) market a specific technology, even if you have to > carve your own niche market. That is profitable. >
No it isn't. several billion dollars worth industry called "Linux" is proof that Proprietary is /not/ the only game in town. Linux--- is a several billion dollars worth industry and is open source. Red Hat is an Open Source business. many LInux distros are "businesses". IBM Global Services is an Open Source Business. Apple is at its core, an open source business. PostgreSQL is an open source business. MySQL is an open source business. notice anything similar with these businesses? > The key to sustaining profitability is constant development, research > and constant development. Now, if your software is open sourced, > and can > be copied and distributed freely, Where will you draw your profits? > and > how an individual defines "open source" profit may vary. > > people (like myself) buy technology (for corporate use) partly because > of support, it maybe because supporting a system isn't my cup of tea. > And I would rather trust a solution provider- be it open sourced or > propietary, to give me the level of confidence i need to keep this > system running. (support agreement- if it were open sourced developed) > > The question of sustainable manpower on F/OSS (software) development > maybe two-fold, would you also have enough people to SUPPORT the > software once it is developed. And if it is open source and > PROFITABLE, > how much time,money and people would you spend to add features so that > it evolves. Because eventually, pinoys would copy (read: pirate) your > software. > when people gain value for a thing they rarely destroy it. how many have actually... forked a linux project? how many pinoys pirate php? or apache? or linux? the thing that most people don't understand about open source is... it is a community first before anything else. open source projects are built around people coming together because they have a need. it is like a rotary club where engineers gather and be geeks. it doesn't even have to change the world. it may even be all about building a better door knob. or dog house. > you are correct, no roads = no cars. but people need to move so they > used horses, and here in the philippines they used carabaos. So when > there are no roads and you cannot sell cars, sell horses and carabaos; > or sell sturdy sandals because people would tend to walk - eventually > wearing off their footwear. > see this is where pinoys make another mistake. when there are no roads and no cars, isn't that the perfect opportunity to blaze the trail? if Henry Ford thought well "we'll need paved roads for cars to work", before he built his first car? would he? i wonder if the wright brothers thought they needed a flying license to fly? i forget my history... did the car arrive before paved highways and roads or was it the other way around? so the real question is: why aren't we building and introducing cars? open source gives that opportunity to every single man, woman and child. any computer shop owner can simply download linux, install it on the white boxes he sells. that's opportunity right there. > so starting a local open source company is feasible, but your product > and services will have to suit your target market. > > business that succeed is first about passion. 2nd it is about great and talented people. 3rd it is about products and 4th about making money. don't believe me? try to listen/watch steve jobs and bill gates being interviewed. you can gain a whole new perspective on business, on technology. they have great positive insights. linux people should really try to listen to them. they're not angels or the devil. here's the link: http://arkangel1a.blogspot.com/2007/06/ real-world-im-pc-im-mac.html also Guy Kawasaki's "The Art of the Start" here: http://arkangel1a.blogspot.com/2007/04/everyone-care- nobody-cry.html also try to find the book "Under the Radar" a history of Red Hat and how they started, very insightful reading. i highly recommend it for anyone going out to start their own open source business. open source does not change the paradigm of starting a company, instead it opens (no pun intended) greater opportunity to build new and exciting things. what's your passion? what's your great idea? ------------ Cocoy Dayao [EMAIL PROTECTED] big mango - http://arkangel1a.blogspot.com "People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware." --Alan Kay _________________________________________________ Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List plug@lists.linux.org.ph (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Read the Guidelines: http://linux.org.ph/lists Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph
