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How Many Commercial Open Source Models?

Pop quiz: How many commercial open source business models can you think of? Most people would probably say two or three. How about 10?

That's the number Carlo Daffra came up with in his own research to create a taxonomy for commercial open source. It's an ongoing effort, not set in stone -- this is the "preliminary second version" of the list -- but even as a preliminary model it's quite eye-opening. A few key assertions in the article are also worth a closer look:

1. "[M]any successful companies are now specializing in a single activity" -- meaning instead of offering an agglomeration of different things like consulting, support, training, etc., some companies pick one facet of that, stick with it, cultivate it, and make it into their raison d'être. This squares nicely with the "run small, run light" mindset that many open source outfits have also favored.

2. The "badgeware" category, present in previous versions of the list, is gone now: "As the visibility clause can now be included in the GPLv3, I believe that the remaining few badgeware licenses will disappear quickly." I agree with this: Badgeware licenses have typically been annoyances with far better alternatives available, and products that sport them have been bitterly criticized for using them in the first place.

I'll be taking a closer look at the business model breakdown in a future post, but these two points are worthy of feedback right now.

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