Saturday, October 5, 2024

Is Linux Killing The Enterprise Software Model?

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BOSTON — Open source startups are changing the rules of the traditional
enterprise software market. At least that’s what a panel made up of MySQL,
JBoss, SugarCRM and XenSource heads and moderated by VA Software chairman Larry
Augustin was happy to proclaim loudly and clearly at a LinuxWorld session here this week.

John Roberts, CEO and co-founder of open source CRM vendor SugarCRM, asked
rhetorically whether spending most of an enterprise software vendor’s money
on product marketing, as is usually the case, is the right way to go. Roberts
argued that open source provides a more efficient model for software that
costs less.

Peter Levine, the new CEO of XenSource chimed in that it was mind boggling to him how
much attention Xen has gotten without spending any money on sales or marketing.

“Here we are, a small company, and it’s amazing to me how visible the brand
and the technology are,” Levine said.

Brand alone isn’t enough to pay the bills for an open source company.

Marc Fleury founder and CEO of JBoss commented that open source has
significantly lowered barriers to how customer sales cycles work. With open
source, customers simply download the applicant and they try it out.

MySQL CEO Marten Mickos noted, however, that you still have to close
the deal.

MySQL 5 has had approximately 50,000 downloads a day since its
release, which presents a particular problem when it comes to leads and lead
qualification.

This article was first published on InternetNews.com. To read the full article, click here.

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