Open Source is the way of the future

Open Source is the way of the future

by Damien Seguy

Running a business is complex enough. But it seems that running an OpenSource business adds even more challenge: all the sources are made available. This means that your users may have a look at it, to correct any bug, or adapt itto their need, but so does your competition. Major software companies keeptheir source code jealously hidden, and are reluctant to disclose it to anyone.Even employees have to agree with a complex non-disclosure agreement before

getting their hand on the real work. Does Open Source leave you unprotected?

Meet the new entrepreneurs: MySQL AB and Zend Technologies.

Since Linux, Open Source softwares have demonstrated thatthey are viable solutions for both maintaining and developingsoftware. With open source software, bugs are being tracked

and eradicated by a large number of users. Contributions are gathered and benefit to everyone. And above all, the project itself cannot be sunk by the company bankruptcy: there is no

commercial environment nor market to satisfy, which could eventually drive the project to its end.Nowadays, we see a new kind of companies emerging:

"Open Source software companies"

They are using a new strategy:

develop software the way Linux does, backed by significant commercial force, to support the product and bring it to the whole market. MySQL AB and Zend Technologies are such

companies, whose success demonstrates that making money and working for Open Source project at the same time is compatible. MySQL AB and Zend Technologies MySQL AB is a Swedish company, started by David Axmark, Allan Larsson and Michael “Monty” Widenius. MySQL AB develops and maintains the MySQL database server, the worlds most popular database. MySQL is dual licensed: users may choose between the GNU General Public License, with open source released directly on MySQL.com web site.

On the other hand, they may purchase any commercial licenses offered by MySQL AB, giving them the right to include MySQL in their own product, and sell it packaged. Since sources are free, MySQL AB sells support. Of course, free support is also offered from the forum and mailing list, but customer support ensures that problems are addressed faster, and requests for new functionalities are considered with higher priority. MySQL AB also collects royalties from their commercial licenses, from training sessions settled all around the world, and consulting to big

companies. MySQL AB has 55 employees and is posting record sales level for the 3rd quarter of 2002. David Axmark is MySQL AB co-founder and now he works in relation with the

community.

Zend Technologies is an Israeli company, started and named by Zeev Suraski and Andi Gutmans. Zeev and Andi rewrote the PHP core from scratch: the Zend Engine. This piece of softwareis the underlying layer of every PHP-driven web site since PHP3. PHP and the included Zend Engine is freely downloadable from php.net and zend.com under the PHP license, which is a

derivate of the BSD style Apache licence. Nowadays, Zend Technologies continues to develop the Zend Engine, and publishes it at no cost. Indeed, they even chose to change the Zend Engine licence to match the PHP license. Zend’s business model is to develop and sell PHP tools that help developing, protecting and scaling PHP web sites, thanks to their excellent knowledge

of the internal of the language.