“Call it the open source business paradox. At a time when
public and private investors seem to be turning up their noses at
open source companies and the notion of selling software with
freely available source code, large and small businesses alike
can’t seem to get enough of it.“
“Last week’s announcement by IBM (IBM) Chairman and CEO Lou
Gerstner about Big Blue’s willingness to invest $1 billion in
Linux-related marketing and support efforts in the coming year is a
perfect example of this paradox in play.”
“Slowly but surely, companies such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard (HWP)
and even Oracle (ORCL) have re-positioned themselves as the best
friends of the open source community, while former starlets such as
Red Hat (RHAT) and VA Linux (LNUX) scramble to earn their first
profitable dollar.”
“While this may be bad news for the investors who expected Red
Hat and Linux to become the next IBM, it’s a cause for optimism
among second-tier open source entrepreneurs.”