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Written by Daniel
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Monday, 15 January 2007 07:44 |
Taking the plunge into open source
By Martin LaMonica
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: January 15, 2007, 6:00 AM PST
More software companies are finding that the best way to make money with software is to give it away, cherry-picking open-source software practices for commercial gain.
On Monday, a small software company called Aras will release the code of its design application--written entirely with Microsoft technologies--and shift to an open-source business model.
More software companies are deciding that the risks associated with converting to open source--such as lower license revenue and shared intellectual property--offer better growth opportunities than the traditional enterprise software model.
For a small company faced with tepid growth, letting anyone download its application for free was a risk worth taking.
"We've been growing but growing at a slow and steady rate. It was our observation, and the board agreed, that enterprise software is on the verge of a big shift," said Peter Schroer, president of Aras. "In open source, what's left is the application layer, and we wanted to be the first to offer it, not the last."
Aras' decision to go open-source mirrors moves by hundreds of software companies adjusting to the popularity of open source, where a product's underlying code is freely available.....More
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