Open Source Galvanizing the New Market Economy

Open Source Web Templates Content and Document Management Market Software: Call it a philosophy, a movement, or a methodology. Call it what you like, but open source has revolutionized the software economy, changing the way software is being built, sold, and used around the globe.

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If a rising tide raises all boats, then open sourcing is the next big tide in the world of technology. Sun Executive Boardroom is pleased to present an interview with Senior Vice President of Software Marketing Peder Ulander, who joins us to discuss the myriad of doors that open sourcing opens for developers, enterprises and customers.

Q: How do you define open source software?

Ulander: It's essentially computer software whose source code is available under a copyright license that allows anyone to study, change, improve, redistribute, modify, and build on top of it. The goal of open source software is to embrace a community of developers around the software platform and make it freely available and openly marketable. It's a methodology for software development, but also a route to market. For developers, open source is about participation and collective strength. For users, open source is about vendor neutrality and control over the technology.

Q: What are the business benefits to open source?

Ulander: Open source allows customers to engage in various technologies early on in an evaluation cycle without cutting a purchase order. They can download it, use it, get their developers on it, and build a proof of concept that helps them decide if they like it. Risk and barriers to entry don't exist.

Another benefit of open source for a customer is that there is no lock-in to the company that has delivered the source code. Let's use Linux as an example. People liked Linux because it didn't have the proprietary nature of traditional UNIX flavors. It offered the flexibility to run on multiple hardware technologies, delivered by different vendors. In the late '90s, you either ran Solaris on SPARC, AIX on Power, HP on their custom stuff, or Microsoft on Intel. The desire was to get UNIX-level reliability and capabilities with commodity-based hardware. Linux removed the barriers to entry, enabled more choice, and opened up opportunities for customers. The attractiveness to customers was the ability to leverage commodity technologies from multiple vendors, participate in the community, and take advantage of significant cost savings.