So you want to sell open source
I wanted to write about the concept of selling open source ideas and what are some of the required criteria for being successful in doing it for quite some time, and Stormy‘s comment on my last post sort of pushed me to it.
I use the word “sell” here not strictly in the sense of a financial transaction but also in the sense of getting your open source product to be adopted and have a better chance at standing out from the huge pool of available open source software. These last 3 years have showed me that what we today call “popular” open source software display a couple of distinct patterns, some of which seem to also be shared with other open source products that are distributed with some type of financial payback. So, without much further ado, here are some of my observations:
- Your “product” must be available for the Ubuntu distribution. There is no doubt that Ubuntu is the most popular desktop GNU/Linux distribution and there are no signs of that changing any time soon. If you want people to use your product, make sure you have it properly packaged for Ubuntu. Bonus points for RPMs too!
- It should be localized to other languages. When we’re talking about massive contracts such as those done by government agencies and larger institutes or departments, and I quote Stormy here, “having localized versions of the product can be a deciding factor for companies looking to include GNOME technologies in their products, like custom netbook distros.” More follows on my next point.
- Corporations should invest in open source communities. For instance, say that company Foo wants to sell device Bar to the education department of country Zing. Let’s say this device will run LXDE and will be distributed to young children of Zing whose first language is Zong. Don’t you think that Foo will have a better chance of getting a contract with Zing if their devices are 100% translated to Zong? Also, wouldn’t make sense for Foo to invest some (probably tax deductible) money into a project’s translation team so to give back to the community, and moreover, get (hopefully) quicker return in their investment?
- Documentation must also be localized. This includes web sites, forums, FAQs, etc and goes hand to hand with my previous observation.
- Have a clear process for offering some type of support. Having a great product is only half of the battle if you want to make it appealing to “investors”. But in order to secure a good relationship with them it is necessary to have a clear and structured process for offering technical support. Obviously most open source projects are all volunteer based and there is no “support team” per se, but having some type of issue tracking system and a FAQ section somewhere intuitive in your project’s web site is a good start. Investors need to know that in case something arises, issues can be “escalated” to people who will be more knowledgeable on how to handle them.
- Release soon, release often. Stay on top of your issues and make sure that there is a constant feedback flow between those who report them and those who are looking into them. Have a clear and well stated roadmap available and make sure that your users know when to expect an update or upgrade.
Well, there are some of the things I could remember during my lunch break. As I am not a business person nor have I ever sold anything in my life, some of these observations may not be relevant to the real world. I’d be very much interested to learn what other people think about this subject and what personal exeperiences you may want to share?
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 11th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
” * Your “product” must be available for the Ubuntu distribution. There is no doubt that Ubuntu is the most popular desktop GNU/Linux distribution”
I have my doubts about that. Where is Ubuntu publishes it’s sources for such claims? Just because your employer is Canonical doesn’t mean you can make such claims. Also why not make it available for Linux on the whole and work with the popular distributions which can include Ubuntu instead of considering Ubuntu as the centre of the world.
I can tell you for sure that Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the distribution that is actually making money and leading the pack in revenue and that claim unlike yours is verifiable. Canonical is still losing money as Mark as admitted himself.
March 11th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Neo, I do not work for Canonical
Furthermore, I have not run Ubuntu for the last 3 years. 
I was just stating that due to its popularity, it is a good idea to make sure you have packages for it.
Cheers,
Og
March 11th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Just check the linux forums most popular distro annual poll.
March 11th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Ok, so apologies for getting your employer wrong but don’t think recommending only Ubuntu over other distributions is completely the wrong thing to do? I don’t disagree that it is popular however you have no reliable source to actually claim that Ubuntu is the most popular. I am sure that really depends on the market we are talking about. Enterprise – unquestionably Red Hat is the most popular. Embedded – Ubuntu is definitely not even close. Desktop – looks like Fedora actually wins this race and unlike others produces actual numbers.
http://californiaquantum.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/another-100000-week-for-fedora-10/
Just don’t get carried away in your evangelism.
March 11th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
“Just check the linux forums most popular distro annual poll.”
Huh? Polling indicates nothing more than fanboyism. I am talking about actual numbers. Sometimes closed to organized research rather than silly stuff like google searches or forum polls.
March 11th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
No argument here. Context does play a major role and if the product in question is “enterprise” level, your target will definitely change. My post wasn’t very clear about the context and you have a valid point.
I don’t really see what kind of evangelism you’re implying here? For the record I could care less what distro other people run, and I am definitely not suggesting that people should run Ubuntu.
March 11th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
I have encountered other Ubuntu users in my day to day life at school. I cannot say the same about other distributions. Ubuntu is the face of linux on the desktop. (I may come to prefer Fedora one of these days, but if I do, I’ll still wear my Ubuntu hoodie everywhere and _never_ say the word ‘linux’.)
http://www.google.com/trends?q=apple%2C+ubuntu%2C+fedora%2C+suse%2C+debian&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
..make sure you provide .debs at least, because frankly, compiling code is against my religion, and if you expect me to screw with some script, I just won’t bother.
March 11th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
“I don’t really see what kind of evangelism you’re implying here? ”
You said this as your very first point
“Your “product” must be available for the Ubuntu distribution. There is no doubt that Ubuntu is the most popular desktop GNU/Linux distribution ”
You don’t think that is evangelism? I think it is actually misleading evangelism. Like I said I have my doubts about your claim that Ubuntu is the most popular in any context. I have yet to see reliable sources for such claims.
If I am building a open source product as opposed to a project, I would build for RHEL instead since I can actually have a hope of making some money. Ubuntu moves too fast for a ISV and LTS is unproven and has no good certifications in place.
If more product developers target only Ubuntu, that will lead to more people using Ubuntu whether you are explicitly suggesting it or not. If you are not, then I think that is a point worth mentioning as an update in your blog.
March 11th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Seriously Neo, I wish you dropped the whole Ubuntu-phobia discussion and talked about how to sell open source products, period! How about we use your observations about RHEL being a viable pathway for enterprise and call it quits?
March 11th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
It is nothing to do with phobia but a principle of avoiding false marketing. If you are going to make a claim, stand behind it and substantiate or agree that you were mistaken and update your blog post to reflect that.
So, the fundamental point remains this: In any context, how do you know Ubuntu is the most popular? Since you claim that you have no doubt on this fact and I do, I would really like to know why you think that? I am really curious.
March 11th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
@neo: lol. Go ahead, build for RHEL. I won’t bother tinkering with alien to install your rpms.
March 11th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
All i ask is that when people claim Ubuntu is the most popular that you make that claim on the basis on hard numbers and a communicated methodology. The methodology used to arrive at the claim of “most popular” matters a lot.
Canonical has quoted the same estimate for the size of the Ubuntu userbase since 2006 to the press, indicating zero estimated growth in the Ubuntu userbase since 2006. I don’t think those statements to the press really mesh with the argument you are making concerning popularity. And isn’t Canonical in a position to know best as to what the userbase numbers actually look like? If Canonical isn’t prepared to talk about year over year growth of Ubuntu’s userbase..that says something significant.
Hell there’s a very good chance that Xandros pre-installs of linux on Asus netbooks far outpace the pre-installs of Ubuntu, making it conceivable that Xandros is the most popular consumer linux desktop…if all you are counting are OEM pre-installs. How you count and what you count matters a lot. Transparency matters.
-jef
March 11th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Ok Neo, let’s do this.
“It is nothing to do with phobia but a principle of avoiding false marketing. ”
This was based on my observations. Distrowatch and every other Linux magazine, news site, etc talks about Ubuntu the most. It is based on these facts that I made my observation.
“If you are going to make a claim, stand behind it and substantiate or agree that you were mistaken and update your blog post to reflect that.”
I am most definitely making a claim, standing behind it and am not making changes to my post. Happy?
March 11th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Jef, please do show me stats and enlighten me with other facts. I’d really love to see them and compare to what my observations have showed me.
March 11th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Are people saying that ubuntu is not popular? Because how popular is up for debate, but the fact “make available for popular distro” remains true, let’s not be pedantic. I doubt Xandros users are as likely to be installing custom packages anyway (shocking sweeping statement etc.)
Anyway popular does not mean ‘best’ so everyone can remain smug.
Personally I thought the point made was that accessibility, especially language wise was important, madness.
March 11th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
It’s hard to tell the actual popularity of the distros and linux as such. But from my observations, at least in my vicinity, 2 things are clear:
1. Linux is beginning to show up in “real life” — ordinary people start using it, ok maybe they are somewhat tech-savvy, related to IT etc, but still not typical linux geeks (which are rare).
2. Ubuntu is the MAJOR choice among those people, maybe even as high as 80-90%! And the remaining is Xandros on Asus, Linpus on Acer etc. Oh and I’ve seen 1 Fedora installation, that’s it.
Of course worldwide/corporate statistics might be different, but from what I’ve seen Ubuntu is an undisputed leader
March 11th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
Sorry, neo, but Ubuntu is by far the most popular Linux distribution out there. The time that RHEL was popular in the enterprise is gone, sorry. I work with Linux for more then 5 years, and I live in Brazil, where most of the PCs sold in big stores (like “Wal-Mart” and “Best Buy”) come with Linux, not Windows. And they come with Ubuntu or a fork from Ubuntu.
To be honest, I think I have saw just one or two Fedora installed PCs out there, and they where from Fedora fanboys; not usual users. Well, even openSuse and Mint (a fork from Ubuntu, I think) are more popular then Fedora, just take a look at http://distrowatch.com/.
I don’t have any problem with other distros, but you can’t deny that Ubuntu is popular, at least if you have in Antarctica.
March 12th, 2009 at 4:36 am
I personally think that (open)SUSE is the most popular distro in companies. And the amount of PC’s in companies is by far superior to the amount of family PC’s. At least, openSUSE is the one I install everwhere and it’s the one I recommend for business.
So I agree, Ubuntu is the most popular… on family PC’s.
March 12th, 2009 at 5:54 am
I think having your product available on as many distributions as possible at release time is the key – not just Ubuntu, openSUSE or whatever one feels is dominant.
Utilising services like openSUSE’s Build Service allows projects the opportunity to have their product available for a wide range of both community and enterprise distributions, this includes all current releases of Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Mandriva, CentOS, RedHat Enterprise, SUSE Enterprise and of course openSUSE.
I have nothing against Ubuntu, but why single them out? When it comes to the big money it’s really between Red Hat and Novell. Yes Ubuntu is slowly moving into the enterprise but it has a long long way to go to make it count. By providing releases on as many platforms as possible you negate the whole discussion of which distro to target.
The old mantra of “release early, release often” is not suited to many products now. Especially if someone wants to sell open source. If your product is a hobby or a part-time fun thing (yes I know everything should be fun) then yes it works well. A customer does not appreciate having to apply a new version too often (enterprise customers loathe updating every once in a blue moon and won’t even entertain something that has no release cycle).
OK so you may not be aiming at the enterprise but it still applies to SMBs and the education sector. They have limited IT resources so having them update too often is an added overhead for them, and will potentially turn them away from using you product/service.
March 12th, 2009 at 9:33 am
I see a lot of handwaving from Ubuntu fans but no actual numbers. I suppose Ubuntu has become a bit of a religion that you have to trust that it is the most popular on blind faith instead of some organized process. Sorry folks, this isn’t the FOSS method of doing things.
March 12th, 2009 at 10:48 am
How about “use the best technology available to make contributions by outsiders easier”?
And of course “Integrate with Major linux desktops” (Gnome and KDE) and “Be Cross-Platform”. For all three, point them to Qt as development platform of choice – it’s the smartest choice (fast, efficient, cheap, powerful, fully LGPL).
I would also add “Be honest to the community”. You have to be very honest about your intentions: you want to make money on a Free product. This will give the community the confidence that you will continue to support it, that it’s not a whim.
About the Ubuntu thing, just point them to the OpenSuse build service. It automatically creates packages for all major distro’s including Ubuntu.
March 12th, 2009 at 10:53 am
Good points jospoortvliet!
March 12th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Well I thought after all the flaming you might be interested in some real, actually useful suggestions
March 12th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
hahahaha Absolutely! Much appreciated.
March 12th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
@neo
there aren’t any numbers for Linux. You’ll never get them because no one has a comprehensive statistical analysis of linux desktop use in the home.
It seems that a majority of people realize this and are going with what they OBSERVE. Hopefully, you’ll realize that trying to get people to give you a 100% statistical analysis for desktop linux use in the home doesn’t exist (it’s a mythical unicorn) and you too can begin to OBSERVE what the most popular (NOT BEST) distribution is out there.
Remember too that the entire point of this post WASN’T to dispute the general observation that Ubuntu is the most popular distribution out there. If you attack his observations, you’re just using it as a red herring…you should be addressing the subject of the post, not a small detail you personally don’t think is correct that cannot prove true nor false.
March 12th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
“there aren’t any numbers for Linux. You’ll never get them because no one has a comprehensive statistical analysis of linux desktop use in the home.”
Some people have a more organized process than Canonical which has been giving out the same 8 or 6 million for a few years without telling anybody how they came up with the number. In contrast Fedora has this:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Statistics
Fedora numbers add up to 12 million or so which is more than 8 million.
RHEL numbers are given out by Red Hat and are based on the number of subscriptions which is a clear number. Over 2 million paid subscribers IIRC
Novell can give out sales numbers as well.
“you should be addressing the subject of the post, not a small detail you personally don’t think is correct that cannot prove true nor false.”
Yes, if you go by blind faith,this is what happens. Instead, if you have a organized process, you can show your observations in a clear way. I have addressed the subject of the post very directly. If it wasn’t clear already, my point of view is that advocating and making unverifiable claims are the wrong way to sell open source.
March 12th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
@neo
Those numbers are for installs alone…not usage. That just means that Fedora (or its derrivs) has been installed 12 million times.
It’s also interesting that they use new unique IPs as well…my IP address changes about once every 3-4 weeks because I have a dynamic IP from my ISP. That means If I installed Fedora this week, formatted and reinstalled it 4 weeks later, I’d be seen as 2 Fedora users. Hardly something I’d put stock in IMHO.
As for Novell, that’s business…not home use.
“Yes, if you go by blind faith,this is what happens. Instead, if you have a organized process, you can show your observations in a clear way.”
Good luck with your study. Please let us know when the paper is published. As I said once before, I’ll say again now…there are NO studies of HOME USE for Linux.
“my point of view is that advocating and making unverifiable claims are the wrong way to sell open source.”
Your claim to the contrary (that Ubuntu isn’t the most popular distro) is also UNPROVABLE. Thus, both opinions for and against are moot. So now, drop this nonsense and look at the ACTUAL post and what it deals with.
Honestly man, people who debate over semantics and fanboyism like this RUIN open source and linux for everyone else. If you spent one tenth the energy on furthering ALL Linux instead of all this debating…you’d be one of the #1 linux advocates in the world.
March 13th, 2009 at 7:36 am
“Those numbers are for installs alone…not usage. That just means that Fedora (or its derrivs) has been installed 12 million times.”
Wrong. Read the wiki page on the method. It doesn’t just count downloads.
“It’s also interesting that they use new unique IPs as well…my IP address changes about once every 3-4 weeks because I have a dynamic IP from my ISP.”
Did you actually try reading the page completely? There is a section on accuracy. Nobody says numbers have to be perfect but your source should atleast be honest and transparent.
“As for Novell, that’s business…not home use.”
The blog post makes no such distinction and the author has admitted this mistake already.
“Your claim to the contrary (that Ubuntu isn’t the most popular distro) is also UNPROVABLE. Thus, both opinions for and against are moot. ”
Sorry. That’s completely wrong. If you make a claim, you should stand behind it. If you make a claim that Ubuntu is the most popular distribution, then, it is your responsibility to prove it. Not the other side.
March 13th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
[...] on selling you product and serviceNetOfficials » Blog Archive Who Are You Selling To? Must-Have …Journal of an Open Sourcee » Blog Archive » So you want to sell …Bill Bartmann Business Tips: Things To Consider When Going Into …Are you sale-orineted? | [...]
March 13th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
[...] Journal of an Open Sourcee » Blog Archive » So you want to sell … [...]
March 17th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
“… avoiding false marketing. ”
That is a major issue with the developers/community. All marketing is sort of highlight your good features, gloss over things that are not really true, but sound good. Ubuntu has a market perception of being THE leading distro. Nobody should get bent and have a long thread like we do above. Just create stuff and do as much as on his list as you want.