From: zoo@cygnus.com (david d 'zoo' zuhn) Subject: Re: The free software myth and the commerical myth Date: Tue, 18 May 1993 21:47:57 GMT
Cygnus is constantly held up as a shining example of the commercial opportunity
of GNUism. I would like to understand just how successful this firm is.
How many people does it employ? How much job security is there working
for this firm? How well does it pay its employees?
Well, I started a little over a year ago, and we were at 20 people. We're
around 40 people right now. I don't expect that I'll be forced to go job
hunting anytime soon, and I don't worry about Cygnus not being around in a
couple of years. What I do wonder about is how we'll handle being a
200-300 person company in a couple of years (my estimates). As for the
last question, I don't drive a Lexus, nor do a drive a 20-year-old beater.
I would also like to mention that contrary to the support opportunity,
most people don't care about support. They want software that helps
solve their problem. This can often require support to get the software
to work, but the best software doesn't need support. It seems that
GNUism creates an incentive to develop software that needs support, at
least if you want to create commercial opportunities.
I don't think this is the case. We never hear from many of our customers.
They're too busy getting work done with the tools we provide them. That's
support. It's a warm-fuzzy feeling that they're getting high quality
tools, and that they have someone they can ask if/when they need to.
Further I would add that it is constantly said that GNU software is
better supported than commercial software. Why pay for commercial
products that provide support, if you can use GNU stuff supported free
via the net? Don't have net access? It's cheaper to get net access
than to pay someone for support.
Because you don't get a contractual obligation to provide a fix for you
from the net. Or you can't expect the net to port the entire toolchain to
a new processor. Or you just like having someone you can call up and ask
about the problem, instead of throwing it into the wind and seeing what
happens. "I shot a bug into the ether, it landed I know not where".
Seriously now, if you report a bug in a program, do you expect that you'll
get a fix (patch) within a few days? Or do you just work around the
problem and wait for the next release? Many people are willing to pay to
not have to spend the time finding a work-around. They have a job to do,
and want to be doing that job, even if it means paying for support from a
third-party (and Cygnus is not the only company who does support for free
software) to get the fixes into their hands in a timely manner.
Opinions herein are not officially sanctioned by Cygnus. They may not even
be reading this. Obviously, I'm somewhat biased. If you can't figure out
which way, that's your problem. Blah. Blah. Blah.
david d 'zoo' zuhn |
cygnus support | And if you're never lost, how can you be found?
zoo@cygnus.com |