Will commercial software survive the battle with open Source software or are they already losing? How (if at all) are the commercial software houses defending themselves?
Part 1: Basic Concepts:
Terms:
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software that is both open source software and free software. This means that it is freely licensed to use, examine, copy, alter the source code of the software, and the source code it self is openly shared. However, for software to be considered FOSS it must pass a certain criteria established by the Open Source Initiative (OSI). They determine that FOSS must have a completely free redistribution with no form of royalty or other form of a fee for the sale (resellers) and the source code must be easily freely accessible preferably through the medium of the Internet. Additionally, the license of FOSS must, state that derived works (modification of the original FOSS) have the same license of the original software, state that derived works are permitted to be distributed, not prohibit the use of the software with certain ethic/religious or other groups/people, not prohibit the use of software in certain fields of endeavor (i.e. in business or at school), be universal to all forms of installation and be technology-neutral (i.e. have no provisions of the license for lets say windows versus mac). A license, which fulfills all these criteria, is Mozilla Public License 2.0 (approved by OSI). Mozilla Firefox (a web browser) is an example of said FOSS. It however, does not publish globally other people’s improvements to the code until they first ‘prove’ themselves by undergoing certain tests (permitted by OSI).
There is also something called Open Source Operating System. This, while similar to FOSS,...
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...s this and also that the commercial software has the ability to purchase their infrastructure. Therefore, commercial software often fuels innovation, which is what consumers want. These commercial software producers will always remain, however few, and will always remain on top of the food chain as seen by Oracle and IBM who purchase these FOSS developers’ infrastructure and use them for monetary benefits.
Part 4: How (if at all) are the commercial software houses defending themselves?
As seen by Oracle and IBM, commercial software houses are purchasing these FOSS infrastructure thereby reducing their own developing costs. They are ultimately while be small, always remain on top for they provide the monetary benefits that FOSS can never truly give. Furthermore, commercial software are also bringing FOSS developers to court due to copyright infringement, and so on.
The notion that software should be free is one that is highly critiqued within the technology industry. Free, as in the idea that users can obtain the source code for any given program, and modify and redistribute it as they like. Currently most all software produced is proprietary in nature. Corporations pay developers to create proprietary software that they then obstruct (so that no modifications can be made), and sell (to turn a profit). Richard Stallman has been fighting the idea of proprietary software, and specifically software ownership, for decades. Stallman holds the stance that software ownership is a detriment to society, and stifles innovation, education, and social cohesion.
...have direct access to billions of clients promptly, the developments of open source communities and attitudes, all these captivating developments are sure to transform the autocratic Soviet-like stone monuments of today into interests that people of political economy.
Could this force the company to continuous innovate to prevent the products from entering a mature market? You have to give the customers reason to upgrade. I think that is why Apple has been so successful – by releasing an updated proprietary product every year (iPhone and iPod). This strategy has allowed them to stay ahead of their competitors, forcing the competitors to chase them and also continuously bring new products to the...
...ds than for dot-coms to adopt and integrate traditional ones. It mirrors that the established companies will be successful when they effectively combined of internet and traditional approaches together.
...s and partly, to gain a competitive advantages in the global market. Thus, the company spends billions of dollars in innovative research activities to add new knowledge into the existing knowledge.
Christensen, C. M. (2000). Discovering What Has Already Been Discovered: Why Did Your Customers Hire Your Product? Case Study, 2.
competitors. The. For example, Sony is spending millions on updating. adding new features to products regularly. Internet?
The threat of commercial research and development of other company will become more serious due to crowdfunding.
Firstly, with the operating system market there are no actual barriers to entry. Any one firm can enter into the market and introduce their operating system. A number of powerful firms have indeed done so.
A company like H-P, that offers such a large range of technological products, is facing growing pressures from other competitors that offer more specific solutions; such as companies that prefer producing tablets and phones, those that only manufacture and provide laptops such as Dell or those that have monopolized the software and operating industry such as Windows and Apple; and based on these pressures, H-P is being highly motivated to change by several acquisitions in many other fields and products; such as those focused on software security, cloud computing, analytics software as well as tablets, phones and laptops in order to beat such companies faster to market strategies. Additionally,
The software industry is one of the great catalysts of economic growth and job creation.
Computers and technology makes it easier for entrepreneurs to enter this market. Not only are major tech companies competing against one another, but they are also competing against little programmers that know how to code. In our time you will never know with certainty when a small group of engineers or computer scientists are going to create, “next big thing”. Apple has been able to have a competitive advantage over its competitor by creating the highest quality products and services. Some of Apple’s current competitors are Microsoft, Google, and Facebook, and a few other tech companies as well. Most people strongly people Apple is one of the stronger company its industry, but then again some other people have biased views. Financially, they are the strongest company in the world. Also people are always willing to pay a premium for their products because of their durability, quality, and prior experiences with Apple products. Apple is always on the look at for new innovative ideas and concept that are being produced by self-motivated entrepreneurs. They are always looking to hire bright minds and let them develop within the company. A lot of entrepreneurs, programmers and engineers do not have a problem working for Apple because of their well-established perks. Apple offers its employees of the best benefits in the world. They also fairly compensate their employees that work in the front-end store as
For instance, Microsoft had no interest in supplying the market with web-based versions of its office software until Google had tremendous success with Google Docs. Microsoft, until then content with sales of the traditional installed versions of its office suite, was forced to counter Google Docs and create a Software as a Service (SaaS) compliment to its current offering. To differentiate itself from Google, Microsoft seems to have spent more time on formatting, and syncing with the desktop version, while Google has concentrated on ease of use and promoting collaboration.
From 1980 to 1996, Apple’s competitive range in the PC industry was rocky. Although Apples products were unique and well built, they were overpriced compared to competing products from IBM and others. As competitor prices dropped, Apple prices stayed the same and the company saw a decline in sales as customers opted to purchase from its competitors. John Sculley, former CEO of Apple, took many steps to improve the company’s competitive advantage. One of those steps was to compete with price by producing a low-cost computers that appealed to a mass-market. The second step was to form an alliance with rivals IBM and Novel in order to create new operating systems and applications...
The threat of a new competitor entering the market is high. Google offers its Android operating system free-of-charge and it is also free of any patent restrictions. This reduces the capital requirements and provides a lower minimum efficient scale. In addition, Microsoft’s Windows OS can be customized and licensed as a cost effective alternative to a proprietary