Open source communities have emerged as counterweights to traditional proprietary software standards, and the market dominance of those software superpowers that own those proprietary standards. However, there is much to learn from traditional software superpowers in terms of 'the business of software'. And as many software superpowers (IBM, Oracle, Microsoft) find ways to 'embrace and extend' the open source movement for their own commercial ends, the two paths are converging. This means competitive strategy and execution separate the winners and losers. We need a more robust conversation on the interoperability (in the business sense of the term) of open source communities and commercial software success. In my book "Asymmetric Marketing" I lay out some of Red Hat's best practices in this area. This post is a good start to a much needed conversation.
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Open source communities have emerged as counterweights to traditional proprietary software standards, and the market dominance of those software superpowers that own those proprietary standards. However, there is much to learn from traditional software superpowers in terms of 'the business of software'. And as many software superpowers (IBM, Oracle, Microsoft) find ways to 'embrace and extend' the open source movement for their own commercial ends, the two paths are converging. This means competitive strategy and execution separate the winners and losers. We need a more robust conversation on the interoperability (in the business sense of the term) of open source communities and commercial software success. In my book "Asymmetric Marketing" I lay out some of Red Hat's best practices in this area. This post is a good start to a much needed conversation.