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Re: Database market share 2004

From: <ken_north_at_compuserve.com>
Date: 1 Jun 2005 13:48:31 -0700
Message-ID: <1117658911.227912.324180@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com>


Stu Charlton wrote:
> Look at it this way: most full time Linux or MySQL developers are
> subsidised by venture or public capital today (MySQL has 17 million EUR
> if I recall). They need license revenue to sustain that investment or
> it's effectively going to be supported and developed by hobbiests,
> college students, and engineers with an itch to scratch.

The number of downloads is probably a better measure of the influence of open source products. Trying to use capitalization or revenue as a yardstick is problematical.

Much of the highly-visible open source software (MySQL, JBoss, Apache, Eclipse, Linux) has had an infusion of venture capital or a commitment of resources by large computer companies. For example, IBM committed to spending more than $1 billion on Linux and donated servers and software to the Apache and Eclipse foundations.

The economic effect of open source isn't limited to direct revenue from licenses and support contracts. Companies that manufacture computers know that open source contributes to the revenue stream from selling hardware (e.g., 40 million web servers running Apache). Received on Wed Jun 01 2005 - 15:48:31 CDT

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