Open Source Commentary from Navica CEO Bernard Golden

May 2005 Newsletter: Hell Freezes Over

IBM buys Gluecode and the Associated Press reviews OpenOffice 2.0

Two events last week signaled a new phase of open source adoption -- in a highly dramatic way. In the past, open source mostly has been used by early adopter, highly technical organizations. Mainstream IT shops that rely on easy-to-use applications have not been, to this point, embracing open source. And, regarding end users, most of them hadn't even heard of open source, much less begun using it.

From a vendor perspective, once you got beyond Linux, there was a wide gulf between traditional software companies and the upstart open source firms. So, for example, Oracle enthused about Linux with a marketing campaign "Oracle makes Linux Unbreakable." However, that enthusiasm did not stretch to supporting open source databases! Mainstream vendors avoided any support of open source products that might compete with their own offerings.

Well, as the saying goes, last week hell froze over. Here are two things that happened last week that should let you know that open source is profoundly impacting the IT industry.

IBM to Websphere Software Group: Take a Bullet for the Team

IBM purchased Gluecode, a small startup offering support and services for the open source application server Geronimo. IBM announced that it would offer the product, along with support and service, to SMB customers who wanted to use a low-cost alternative to IBM's own Websphere app server.

Why is this important?

First, it clearly demonstrates that the best-established open source app server, JBoss, is having a significant effect on the app server market. IBM must be feeling the pressure from customers who are adopting JBoss instead of Websphere. So one way to look at this acquisition is to see it as a defensive move against JBoss. In other words, "You want free? IBM has free. Stick with us rather than going to JBoss."

Second, and more important, is that IBM decided that it was better to compete with itself rather than stand and watch as JBoss erodes Websphere's market share. IBM evidently believes that it is better to see what revenue it can extract via services from customers who want to use open source app servers, rather than lose all potential revenue by refusing to services those customers.

Now, IBM is positioning Gluecode as a lower-end product oriented toward SMB users. I'm sure this spin was served up to calm the software group and the sales force. However, if IBM really believes that a there will be a neat box that Gluecode fits in, leaving the revenue-heavy enterprise customers available for the upper-end Websphere product, they're going to be disappointed. After all, if their customers are moving to the free JBoss, why won't they move to the free Gluecode? Gluecode will eventually take a large portion of the IBM app server user community, leaving Websphere clinging to those customers requiring very high scalability and peformance. In other words, the highest-cost, lowest-margin part of the market.

If you had told me a year ago that a major vendor like IBM would support an open source product that competes with one of its own, I would have scoffed. Live and learn.

OpenOffice 2.0 Hits the News

Last week Associated Press carried a review -- and a pretty positive one, at that -- of OpenOffice 2.0.

The review, written by Peter Svensson, AP's technology writer, was carried by newspapers like the Detroit News, Boston Herald, Sacramento Bee, and Seattle Post-Intelligencer (this one must have really hurt them up in Redmond!).

Overall, it gave good marks to the product and predicted it would be a strong competitor to Microsoft's Office Suite.

But that's not what is important about the review -- not at all.

If AP is covering an open source product as a mainstream business story, it shows that open source has moved out of the shadows and into the spotlight. This kind of coverage will, inevitably, hasten open source adoption. All of those readers of daily newspapers will be aware of open source and feel that it must be OK -- after all, didn't the local paper carry a story about it?

Takeaways

All in all, last week was a milestone. IBM announced it would rather change its business model than lose market share with its proprietary approach. Associated Press let its readers know that open source has moved into the mainstream. Hell froze over -- so don't forget to wear your mittens when you go outside!