Do People upgrade?
Posted by Ian Holsman
A lot of opensource companies are based on a business model where they release a ‘open’ version which has the basic functionality, and a ‘enterprise’ version that people pay for.
I’m just wondering how many people actually make the switch. Do people actually start using the open one, only to find it doesn’t meet their needs in 3-6 months time? or do they just use the open one for a pilot project to make sure it isn’t a dud before they actually shell out the dollars for the enterprise one.
If they are only using it for a pilot, wouldn’t it make more sense to just offer a time-limited version of the enterprise one?
and if this is the case, why do large companies with ‘enterprise’ software even think of buying/supporting the smaller open source product in the hopes their users will pay $$$ at a later time.
My basic thought is that users of open source ‘basic’ products have already shown their price sensitivity and have zero interest upgrading. The only way to capture these users is to lock them into your ‘basic’ product, and remove it from the market at a later stage forcing them to upgrade then.
This is what I dislike about this business model the most, in order to sell the enterprise version of the software, you need to control the basic one.
And one method of controlling it is to not let the design, direction, or the IP of the product be ‘opensourced’, making it so only your companies people are responsible.
For me, a true ‘opensource’ product is where multiple vendors co-operate together to build a full-featured product.
Is there money to be made? sure.. in the complements. Tools, Support, Training, Books, and Consulting.
As an alternative, I believe the Aladdin model was the other way round. New versions were buy-a-licence, but automatically got relicensed as GPL a year later. So if you really wanted the latest stuff badly enough, you paid for it. Older stuff you could get for free.
yeah.. Lustre does the same thing. I think that model can work.