The Open Source Server Quagmire

“For many enterprises, the server OS presents a quagmire: They
don’t want to pay too much for the server OS on which they rely,
but at the same time, they don’t want their server OS makers going
out of business. The big question is whether there’s enough money
in open source software to build strong and stable enterprise OS
makers.

“If you run your business using Microsoft’s Windows server OSes,
then you really don’t have to worry. The Redmond giant is rolling
in cash thanks in no small part to the high prices it charges for
its desktop and server OSes and the client access licenses it
requires to connect one to the other.

“But open source companies are different. They don’t sell their
open source software per se, and therefore they don’t make a lot of
money. Peter Wayner over at InfoWorld wrote recently about two
highly valued open source companies: MySQL, which Sun bought for $1
billion, and Red Hat, currently valued by the market at around $6
billion. This was what he had to say:”

Complete Story