Hi,
So you are forming a JBoss Business Group (JBG)
that should give commercial support and help
fund the JBoss project (JBO)?
Sounds fine to me.
marc fleury wrote:
> |But I have seen extra-project enterprises
> |do commercial support for OSS projects
> |with great success, even if free support
> |is available on mailling lists. And this
> |success seems to trickle back to the
> |project in the form of (often hard-to-find)
> |bug fixes and better commercial acceptance.
>
> Obviously that is one of the things we are trying to structure with JBoss
> Group. We intend to get many of the folks that do it today to do it for a
> fee for those folks that just "cruise by" and are eager to get payed
> support. Mailing lists are still our training ground and core JBG
> developers are full time on JBO.
Please note that if JBG is not "extra-project",
ie. seperate from the JBoss project, other
support vendors might not want to start support
for JBoss because they fear unfair competition.
Guess this depends on how the JBG profiles
itself and its relation to the JBoss project.
> |IMO, we need a vendor giving commercial
> |support for JBoss, and we need it a lot
>
> Yes, we do it ourselves. We try to grow it ourselves over time. We know
> our code, we know our server. WE train we do the whole 9 nine yards. We DO
> IT OURSELVES.
>
> |more than direct funding. And I wouldn't
>
> JBG will thus generate funding for JBO
>
> |mind if such a vendor keeps all their
> |hard earned money, as long as they
> |contribute bug fixes back to JBoss, and
> |help making JBoss more commercially
> |acceptable.
>
> yes I do believe you put your finger on something real. If you are fully
> free, businesses don't take you seriously from the outside and from the
> inside all you face is burnout.
I don't fully agree here: A project being "free"
is not an obstacle to business acceptance.
IMHO, the main obstacles for business acceptance
of OSS projects are:
- Lack of warranty.
"If is doesn't work, it's your problem." is
often heard in OSS projects, and the LGPL
says so too. That is no good for business.
Fortunately businesses are beginning to
realize that proprietary software licences
of today are no better in this regard, and
that the source availability and licenses
of OSS software makes it possible for the
business to fix things (or have things
fixed) instead of waiting 6 months for the
next version.
- Lack of timely, guaranteed support.
In business, time is money. If a business
has a problem, they need support *now*.
Mailing to a free support list and hoping
that someone replies will not do. This is
where JBG and other support vendors are
important. And IMO, this is the only place
where a traditional market really exists
in OSS.
Good luck with JBG.
Best Regards,
Ole Husgaard.
