Open source BlueDragon?
Someone whose opinion I respect asked me today whether we've ever considered releasing BlueDragon as open source. He was trying to make the case that we could make more money that way. Frankly, I'm not convinced. I certainly see how it could make BlueDragon more popular--but make more money? I'm not so sure.
But it is interesting to think about. So here are my questions:
- Would you be interested in an open source version of BlueDragon? Why?
- If BlueDragon was released as open source, would it make it less appealing to you? Why?
- Which editions would you want to see as open source? Java/J2EE? .NET? both? neither?
- Would you plan on using an open source version of BlueDragon in production? or only for development and testing?
- Would you use an open source version of BlueDragon instead of CFMX?
- Would you buy a support contract?
- Would you buy a subscription (like Red Hat Linux and JBoss offer)?
- Which open source license would you prefer? dual GPL/commercial (like MySQL)? LGPL (like Linux)? Apache (like Apache and Tomcat, and the rest of the Jakarta projects)?
I have to admit I still don't quite "get" open source in terms of it being a viable business model for software companies (though I see its value in other respects), so it's unlikely we'll go that route with BlueDragon. But I'd be interested in hearing what people have to say.
Comments (10) |
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what was the revenue model proposed by your friend encouraging you to opensource BD? You guys already sell support contracts... I can tell you having been both a consumer and ISV for you guys, one of NA's strongest characteristics is its responsive support staff. In fact I'm using Server JX on a fairly large project now and don't have a problem at all paying a license fee because I know it's backed by such effective support and the hours I saved already with the help of support on a single issue with the SSL cert and JVM have been worth the cost of the license in terms of my time.
If the allure is to compete with Railo or improve penetration and adoption of BD, I don't see opensourcing it being the solution. It would be a copycat move at this point and CF itself has a reputation as being closed and traditionally draws a different crowd than php and Ruby. I just don't see that making it OS will draw a significant number of people away from the competing open technologies. Your strong suit is your support and the best thing you can do now is to find ways to tout the value in speed of development and convenience that your support staff represents and justify the cost of the software to people that way.
Sean
I wonder if your friend is refering to a Red Hat style of business. Red Hat has made lots of money selling an open source product.
If BlueDragon was open source, New Atlanta could still put it in a box and offer extra features and support. Many companies would still pay for the product just for the security of having a company backing it and fixing it. We write webware not application servers after all.
One thing I would like about the open source idea is that knowing a little Java, I would love to be able to get my hands on some of the code behind the CF tags. As I have suggested to MM and Adobe, if the code behind those tags is not 100% optimized then I want at it. I think this is where CF loses a lot of Java developers in that they feel a loss of control because who know what CFQUERY really does. I also think that the Java community would then begin to offer input into the development and improvement of the language which would add a lot more minds into the mix. That "could" be a good thing, no?
Steve
http://www.activsoftware.com/products/price.cfm?id...
The open source version is 4.5x more expensive than the closed source version. I have an open source version of ActivEdit, but never looked at the source.
Would I be interested in an open source BlueDragon? No; but I can envision that it might be an intriguing proposition to some customers. In most cases, I expect that the facilities for extending CFML are more than adequate for most needs.
I'm not sure if your friend was proposing open source business model like "Linux" or one like "ActivEdit".
Yes, For me, I give extra points to companies that offer me this flexibility. Even though in many cases I do not take advantage of it, it gives me an unspoken assurance that the software isn't goin to try and lock me into their entire line of stuff (M$). I know its a bit ideological, but its true.
>> Which editions would you want to see as open source? Java/J2EE? .NET? both? neither?
java, i dont think that many people buying .net are going to care about OSS.
>> Would you plan on using an open source version of BlueDragon in production? or only for
development and testing?
Both
>> Would you use an open source version of BlueDragon instead of CFMX?
Damn straight, and I've been praying for the OS'ization of CF for years. I really think its what we need to compete with the scourge of PHP.
>> Would you buy a support contract?
For personal projects, no, for my day job, yes.
>> Would you buy a subscription (like Red Hat Linux and JBoss offer)?
Whats the differnce between this and the support contract?
As far as making money, Zend has an interesting approach for PHP, as they offer their compiler/accelerator for $1500 / server. Perhaps BD could do something similar, or open the free version for production versions.
Basically, my ideal scenario would be a free version of BD, preferably open sourced, that could cluster/scale easily. And yes, I would buy the support contract.
You might be concerned that a lot of people will not buy the support contract. You're probably right - but these are the types of people who won't pay for anything, and would have gone with LAMP. These ideologically driven types can do a lot to spread the word, and build little apps and widgets that get posted to Digg and slashdot (which seems to happen on a daily basis). Thats a lot of free publicity.
I think that most people who are serious about running a business and turning a profit will be more then happy to purchase the subscription/support contract for NA's famous customer service.
I hope you go for it.
Being someone who has submitted patches to OSS Java projects in the past to work around problems, I certainly wouldn't have any problem doing the same with an open-source CFML implementation and could see my open source friend organization licensing something like that.
I'd say you'd certainly have some sort of enterprise niche market there, especially if you supported BD in JBoss and Tomcat. From reading your blog it seems like you have greater success in selling bd.net vs. the J2EE version of BD, so perhaps moving BD to an OSS model would increase the number of customers you have for the J2EE BD?
I believe you will shoot yourself in the foot with open sourcing BD and trying to solely make money on support contracts. Let's face it, how many of your customers now actually call you about support. From what I understand your product "simply works" (a quote from a friend of mine that uses BD.NET). So besides finding a bug here and they, what support would they need from you?
Plus here is that cold hard fact. You wrote the thing, you deserve to get paid. Everyone who thinks software should be free probably hasn't written software as complex as BD nor put the blood, sweat and tears into something like BD.
The only way BD.NET could ever but truly "free" is if you sold it to Microsoft and they included it as addon to .NET. Then you guys would have revenue coming in from MS from the licensing.
But assuming Microsoft don't want to go shopping, I do think that you should look at reducing the price of BD.net. The reason - I imagine that a large proportion of CF installations, if not the largest, run on Windows, but are probably Standard Edition, not Enterprise. If you're on Windows running on top of .net is almost certainly always going to be more efficient than running on top of Java, but BD.net is priced too high to be an option for people who buy CF Standard.
I'd imagine that increased volume would more than make up for the reduced price.
Yes! I find myself building PHP sites for small businesses that can't hardly afford to pay me, nonetheless buy an application server. Open sourcing BD would draw interest in CFML, and I know without a doubt that it's adoption would be double or triple of PHP because it is a tag based language (which is less daunting for HTML developers).
- If BlueDragon was released as open source, would it make it less appealing to you? Why?
No, it would make it more appealing. More people would write CFML applications, they would probably be willing to put a little icon on their site saying "Built with BlueDragon" (like Firefox enthusiasts), etc. etc. Their is an idea that open souce means less reliable, but the service contract/support would alleviate that concern. Besides, BlueDragon has already proven itself to be reliable, and those who are really concerned about it would likely buy the .NET or J2EE versions with support anyways.
- Which editions would you want to see as open source? Java/J2EE? .NET? both? neither?
I would love to see the JX version open sourced. I think by doing this, New Atlanta may [will] steal interest away from the PHP community. The JX version has everything a freelance developer needs to build small applications for small companies (it also is capable of running large applications). These developers would likely create anti-Adobe Corporation, pro BlueDragon sites, blogs, etc. and would provide free marketing to your product (I know that New Atlanta does not encourage an anti-Adobe or anti-PHP attitude, but people hate corporate America and would praise you for open sourcing an reliable CFML alternative).
- Would you plan on using an open source version of BlueDragon in production? or only for development and testing?
Production. I use ColdFusion Developer Edition because I can set up an RDS login in Dreamweaver and now Eclipse. Anything and everything that was not on the .NET framework or J2EE, I would run on an open source version of BlueDragon JX. That would mean that I could forever put away PHP, even when building small apps for small businesses.
- Would you use an open source version of BlueDragon instead of CFMX?
Absolutely! And if I needed to leverage J2EE or the .NET framework, I would buy those versions at their current price (assuming that I would be stepping out of the small business arena and into an enterprise enviroment).
- Would you buy a support contract?
For small business sites, no. For personal sites, no. For larger businesses and the company I work for, absolutely Yes! It would be essential.
- Would you buy a subscription (like Red Hat Linux and JBoss offer)?
Yes, same as above.
- Which open source license would you prefer? dual GPL/commercial (like MySQL)? LGPL (like Linux)? Apache (like Apache and Tomcat, and the rest of the Jakarta projects)?
Probably GPL like MySQL.