The source of a new movement
If you cannot beat them, join them That seems to be the reaction of a growing number of companies to the rise of open-source software - a trend that has threatened to subvert the economics of a large slice of their industry. The result for some classes of software, say executives from both traditional and open source companies, could well be a gradual convergence of their rival development and business models. Soon, it seems, much software may be created and distributed this way. Open-source software is distinguished by two things. It is developed by a loose community of programmers, although some projects are co-ordinated and led by commercial entities. This keeps the cost of development and testing low. Second, it is distributed under a licence that lets the user see and modify the underlying source code. Depending on the type of licence, modifications may need to be offered free to other users of the software. While the Linux computer-operating system has been the most visible part of the open-source phenomenon, the impact is being felt much more widely. Middleware - the layer of software that sits between the operating system and the applications and has become central in an era when many applications run over the internet - is already feeling the winds of change. Sun Microsystems is considering converting its entire package of middleware (known as the Java Enterprise System) to open source, says John Loiacono, the company’s head of software. BEA Systems, the biggest pure middleware company, has already turned one of its products over to the open-source community. The shift comes as competition from pure open-source products is proliferating. This takes different forms. JBoss, a private software company, has developed its own open-source application server, the piece of software at the core of the middleware layer. Meanwhile, the Apache foundation, which oversees a number of open-source projects, is close to completing its own product, known as Geronimo. A rival open-source group in Europe, ObjectWeb, has already created its own version, known as Jonas. With so many application servers around - not to mention versions from companies such as IBM and Oracle - getting attention is becoming difficult. Turning a closed product over to the open-source world can greatly speed up its development, says Alfred Chuang, chief executive officer of BEA. It also reflects a reality of much software, he adds: products that attract high profit margins can quickly become commoditised as new competitors arise. Converting a product to open source can bring down the price and greatly increase the number of customers, creating a bigger base of users for the company’s newer, higher value software. Open source “is like a whole movement in the marketplace - why fight it?” says Mr Chuang. Mr Loiacono says that independent software developers “are very enamoured of open source - they like to play with the code”. Encouraging these people to write their own software to run on top of Sun’s products is a key part of trying to turn the Sun software into a broadly accepted platform. Corporate IT departments, on the other hand, are attracted mainly by the chance to pay less for software, Mr Loiacono That was a large part of what attracted EXP Pharmaceuticals, a US company, to pick middleware from an open-source company called Gluecode rather than Oracle. Opting for the more established company would have cost three times as much, says Brent Siler, director of IT at EXP. Open-source software has an added benefit, he adds. Most software needs to be modified to some degree to fit the particular business processes of each user: with an open-source product, those modifications can be made by the user, without needing to rely on support from the developer. Corporate buyers also look for reassurance that a product is backed by a commercial company ready to provide upgrades and service, says Mr Loiacono. This has prompted the emergence of a slew of open-source companies whose aim is to provide the same level of support that corporate IT buyers expect from traditional software companies. Some package their software in commercial-style licences: this makes buyers associate them with the sort of warranties and product development plans that the commercial world is familiar with, says Winston Damarillo, CEO of Gluecode. With many similarities in the way they develop, license and support their software, open-source and traditional companies may well end up converging in many areas, says Marc Fleury, CEO of JBoss. “From the point of view of the user, it will be the same,” he says. Commercial software companies that decide to compete head-on with new open-source rivals face one overriding problem, though: the potential loss of significant revenues when they open up a proprietary product. The transition can be intensely painful, warns Jack Messman, CEO of Novell, a long-struggling software company which has sought to reinvent itself as one of the biggest distributors of Linux. Eventually, though, most software companies will have to embrace open source to some degree, adds Mr Messman.
新运动:开放源代码
如果你不能打败他们，那就加入他们。这似乎是越来越多公司对开放源代码软件的反应。开放源代码软件蒸蒸日上的发展趋势，可能会推翻很大一部分软件行业的经营模式。
传统软件公司和开放源代码软件公司的管理人员都表示，某些级别软件的出现，可能会导致他们之间的开发和商业模式逐渐同化。似乎不久以后，很多软件就有可能以这种方式创建和销售。
开放源代码软件有两大特点。这类软件是由一个松散的程序员团体开发的，尽管有些项目是协作开发或由商业实体牵头开发的。这使那些软件的开发和测试成本保持低廉。
第二，这类软件是在一种许可证制度下推广的，用户能够看见并修改基础源代码。取决于许可证的类型，此等修改可能需要向软件的其他用户免费提供。
Linux电脑操作系统一直是开放源代码现象中最显著的一部分，而其影响的范围要大得多。中间件领域已经感到风向的改变。中间件是在操作系统和应用软件之间的一层软件，在当今许多应用程序通过互联网运行的时代占据着中心地位。
太阳微系统(Sun Microsystems)软件部门负责人约翰?洛亚科诺(John Loiacono)表示，公司考虑将其整个中间件套装软件包(称为“Java企业系统”)转变为开放源代码软件。单纯开发中间件的最大公司BEA Systems，已将产品之一移交给开放源代码社区。
这一转变发生之际，正值来自纯开放源代码产品的竞争愈演愈烈。此等竞争有各种不同形式。私人软件企业JBoss已开发出自己的开放源代码应用服务器，这是一种位于中间件层面的核心软件。与此同时，监督大量开放源代码项目的“Apache基金会”，也即将完成自己名为Geronimo的产品。在欧洲，与之竞争的开放源代码软件集团ObjectWeb已创建了自己的版本，名为Jonas。
由于有这么多的应用服务器产品，再加上来自IBM和甲骨文(Oracle)等企业的版本，要引起市场关注已变得越来越难了。
BEA首席执行官庄思浩(Alfred Chuang)说，将一个封闭式产品转入开放源代码世界，能大大加速其发展。他补充说，这也反映了许多软件面临的一个现实：随着新竞争者的崛起，能带来较高利润的产品很快就有可能变得大众化。将产品转换为开放源代码形式可以降低价格，大大提高客户数量，为公司价值更高的新软件产品创建更大的用户群。庄先生说，开放源代码“就像市场上的一场整体运动，为何要与之对抗？”
洛亚科诺先生说，独立软件开发者“对开放源代码非常迷恋，他们喜欢摆弄这些代码”。要试图把太阳微系统的软件变成让人普遍接受的平台，那么一个关键步骤就是，鼓励这些人写出能在太阳微系统产品上运行的软件。
洛亚科诺先生说，另一方面，吸引企业信息技术(IT)部门的，主要是可以有机会少花点钱买软件。美国EXP制药公司之所以选购开放源代码公司Gluecode的中间件，而不从甲骨文那里购买，主要原因就在于此。
EXP公司IT总监布伦特?赛勒(Brent Siler)说，选择牌子更老的公司要花三倍的代价。他补充说，开放源代码软件还有一个好处。多数软件需要进行某种程度的调整，以符合每个用户的特殊业务流程：如果用开放源代码产品，这些调整可以由用户来做，无需依靠软件开发商的支持。
洛亚科诺先生说，企业买家也希望得到如下保证：产品能得到商业公司的支持，能随时提供升级和服务。
这推动了大批开放源代码软件公司的兴起。这些公司的目标是，为企业IT买家提供它们期望从传统软件公司那里得到的同样水准的支持。Gluecode公司首席执行官温斯顿?达马里洛(Winston Damarillo)说，有些公司在它们的软件包装中放进了商业格式的许可证：买家看到这些许可证，就会联想到商业界所熟悉的那些保证书和产品开发计划。
JBoss首席执行官马克?弗勒里(Marc Fleury)表示，由于在软件开发、授权和支持的方式上有许多相似之处，开放源代码与传统软件公司最终可以在许多领域趋向一致。他说：“在用户看来，这将是一样的。”
不过，在商业软件公司决定与新的开放源代码对手开展竞争时，它们面临一个压倒一切的问题：当它们开放一个专有产品时，可能会蒙受重大的营业收入损失。
网威(Novell)首席执行官杰克?梅斯曼(Jack Messman)警告说，这种转变可能会极其痛苦。网威是一家长期陷入困境的软件公司，试图将自己重塑为最大的Linux经销商之一。梅斯曼先生补充说，但最终，多数软件公司将不得不在某种程度上接纳开放源代码模式。
