Open Source Solutions for Small Business Problems

Open Source projects have to deal with something most proprietary projects don’t: forked projects. What’s that? It’s when a person or group exercises the terms of an open source license to create a derived version that competes with the original. It’s practically the definition of open source, the ability to take the code and do whatever you want with it.

This frightens most business people. In the business world, attorneys have designed all sorts of non-compete clauses they attach to contracts, to prevent employees from starting other businesses with the knowledge they’ve gained from working for you. In the open source world, anybody is explicitly allowed to take that knowledge embodied in your software project and set up their own shop.

How do you build a business around something you can’t control?

SQL Ledger/LedgerSMB
In the past couple weeks, there was a fork in the main open source financial project out there, SQL-Ledger. The users’ mailing list is full of insults and accusations between supporters of the old project and the people who’ve left to set up shop. It’s quite an ugly place to visit right now…

What gives the upstarts the gall to leave the project and start their own, LedgerSMB? How is this good for users? Why would they do such a thing?

Turns out, a whole bunch of reasons.

First of all, SQL-Ledger has always been tightly controlled by a single developer. While he accepts help from translaters, most other code he does alone. So new features take months to come out. I’ve been using the system for three years, and there still isn’t a payroll module. While there have been developers willing to help on the project, at least from an outside view the developer has not been that receptive to contributions from the community.

Secondly, while the code is free, the documentation is not. The maintainer of SQL-Ledger hordes knowledge about how to use it, and disseminates it only to people who buy the manual from him. While he has every right to do so–open source is, after all, a voluntary gift to the community when you own the code–it does seem to go against the open source ethos. It feels like a disengenious use of open source–hook them with free software but then force them to buy the manual to be able to use it effectively. Few other open source projects get away with this model.

Thirdly, the mailing lists, which are the main free support for the project seems to have been heavily moderated, and not in a fair or balanced way. I’ve had several of my posts that point out apparent bugs not make it to the list, along with a few answers to other people that might’ve helped them solve their problem but might have been considered too close to the secret sauce in the manual. Meanwhile, some vitriolic subscribers spew ugly insults to others on the list, with apparently free reign, as long as it’s in support of the lead developer. It’s not a friendly place to be, on the Internet, and probably does a lot to drive people away from what is really a great piece of software.

But it appears that the final straw was the lead developer’s complete disregard for a major security vulnerability. At least one developer found this hole nearly a year ago and informed the developer. While we’ve seen more than half a dozen releases since then, this hole wasn’t fixed during that time, until another developer stumbled on it. This developer also tried to work with the main developer to get the hole fixed, but was met with hostility and an unwillingness to take the problem seriously.
So the other developers felt like they had no choice but to take the code and start a new project that took these security concerns seriously.

As a result, all sorts of new possibilities become available: a whole new list of features people have wanted to see may get implemented; people can contribute directly to the project to see enhancements they need; a true open source feel, where people are actually helpful instead of just telling you to purchase the manual; and a sense of shared ownership of the code, not held hostage to a single developer who could decide to pack up his toys and go home.

Now, I don’t mean do speak ill of the original developer. SQL Ledger is really a great program, and he’s done a lot to make it that way. I’ve paid for the manual twice, most recently just to give him financial support to keep working on the software, not because I really needed it. But I do think SQL Ledger has outgrown what can be managed by a single developer, and he stands in the way of its growth. So I look forward to seeing a community-forked version thrive.

Mambo/Joomla 

SQL Ledger is far from the first business open source project to fork. Joomla recently celebrated its first birthday. Joomla is the result of the core Mambo development team getting into conflict with the company that sponsored it, and owned the Mambo trademark. So they all left the project and started Joomla. It took several months for the dust to settle, but Joomla is the clear winner of this fork, with some 2.5 million downloads already and some major innovations on the horizon. Mambo, while it still exists, has barely been able to keep up with security vulnerabilities, and has already lost some of the replacements brought in after the Joomla revolt, for apparently similar reasons.

SugarCRM/VTiger

Not all forks eclipse the original project. SugarCRM has become one of the most successful companies that uses an open source project as its flagship product. And the product is very well done. And it has also been forked–into a community project called vTiger. The reasons for this split are less clear–it apparently has to do with a group of free-software proponents who didn’t really like the idea of a clearly commercial open source project.

SugarCRM is released under a different license than Mambo or SQL Ledger (Sugar Public License, instead of the GPL), so the viability of vTiger is less clear. vTiger has diverged quite a bit from SugarCRM already, adding more enterprise management features like accounting and inventory management while SugarCRM has focused more on enhancing the customer contact side of things with workflow, email campaigns, projects and cases and the like. At Freelock, we’ve stayed on the SugarCRM side of this split so far.

Asterisk/OpenPBX 

Here’s a fork that seems to have dropped off the map. Asterisk is the incredibly popular upstart free PBX (office phone) system that’s starting to decimate the lucrative telecom market. And OpenPBX is an Asterisk fork that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. It has a stated goal of being more stable and better documented, and while it’s still alive, I don’t hear anybody really taking them seriously.

Mandriva Multi-Network Firewall

I’ve even tried to do my own fork of a project. Mandrake Linux for years had a great firewall distribution, called the MNF. As it got long in the tooth, a replacement MNF2 was developed, but it wasn’t released under the same terms as the original. Mandrake had become Mandriva at this point, and it saw MNF2 as a corporate product, not something they wanted to make freely available.

The source code, however, was still covered by the GPL license, which means anyone can take it and start their own version. So we could take the MNF code, rebrand it, and release it under a new name.

Unfortunately, I’ve got a few too many projects on my plate, and so that project didn’t get off the ground. Meanwhile, the formerly thriving community around the MNF has completely died–the mailing list which used to be very active hasn’t seen a post in months. This is a project that could still make for a very fine fork, but that takes time and effort, and nobody has stepped up to the plate to make it happen.

To fork or not to fork

Creating a successful software project of any kind is a daunting task. In the open source world, forks are a natural part of the development of projects. In a very Darwinian way, some forks succeed and grow to become thriving projects of their own, while others die a silent death. A few fill the niche of the parent project, killing it off completely. Forks can be very unsettling, especially when they happen to projects you rely upon for day to day business. It’s generally better to concentrate developer talent into fewer projects, making them develop faster and better. But in the long run, forks are sometimes unavoidable. Forks are an activity that make open source projects thrive, and ultimately result in better software for us all.

… according to Jamie Kellner, former CEO of Turner Broadcasting, in an argument that ultimately caused the demise of the ReplayTV 4000. In case you don’t remember, the ReplayTV unit was essentially a Tivo that, among other things, automatically skipped commercials.

The IEEE Spectrum this month has a good article outlining the problems with Digital Rights Management and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). From the article:
“Copyright is being turned from a limited-term incentive designed to encourage creative artists to a broadly scoped transfer of wealth from the public to the private realm.”

IEEE Spectrum: Death by DMCA

Eben Moglen on Free Software:

“The politics of open source are not anti-business or anything to be ashamed of, but a return to America’s inventive roots after a period dominated by innovation-stifling monopolies.”

Open source politics are ‘American as apple pie’ - ZDNet UK News

We could be there soon. By the end of this year, if an independent survey of developers across North America is accurate.

Linux Today - Editor’s Note: Tipping Point Ahead

Every day, you hear more stories about open source successes. Like this one:

Techworld.com - City finds big savings in Linux

Not many people take the time to read software licenses. But you should. It’s amazing how much spin some companies put in their marketing message, compared to the fine print:
LinuxAdvocate.org - The Windows XP EULA in plain English

Especially interesting to read this side-by-side with the GPL.

Two quick stories caught my eye today, both related to pointing out the propaganda being foisted on us by large corporations…

First of all, an editorial in Wired: Wired News: Worship Not These False Idols. Tony Long asks why people think Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are worthy of so much adulation.

Next, Cory Doctorow writes about what keeps creative people from effectively competing with big business:
Boing Boing: MSFT: Our DRM licensing is there to eliminate hobbyists and little guys.

Wow. Here’s a great, lengthy article detailing all sorts of things about using Linux and open source software in small businesses. Linux: A Buyer’s Guide for SMEs–ZDNet UK.

Fascinating read here, about how a copy-protected music CD from Sony installed a surriptitious program on a computer, hid itself completely from view, and made itself nearly impossible to remove without crippling the user’s computer. These are the techniques of people trying to hijack your computer, the worst techniques of crackers, spyware, and viruses. What’s different in this case is that it’s a big well known company doing it. Mark’s Sysinternals Blog: Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far

Brian Proffitt, editor of Linux World, has a nice editorial debunking “Total Cost of Ownership” (TCO) studies in general, because they only fit the particular business being studied. He points out that if you constrain Linux and open source applications to fit a Windows model, of course you’re going to spend more. The point analysts overlook is this: “getting Linux to accommodate a business rather than the other way around is a much, much easier proposition than Windows.”

Read at: Linux Today - Editor’s Note: How Not to Define Linux.

Here’s a short interview with John Terpstra, one of the main developers of the Samba project, from LinuxWorld in San Francisco: LinuxWorld: Small vendors on right track with SMB focus

I’ve spoken with John on the phone before about some troublesome Samba installations, and agree completely with his assessment of the marketplace. He points out that only 16,500 businesses in North America employ more than 500 people, out of around 27.6 million businesses. From the article:

The problem is that everyone wants to be a star operating in the big-time star space. Smart businesses don’t start off attempting to be stars, but have a clear vision that they have to appeal to the volume market with a pain point and dollars to spend relieving that pain. The SMB market today is screaming for an alternative to Microsoft, but as I speak to those companies, I keep getting the same complaint: ‘We don’t know how to solve our problems with Linux. It’s too difficult to use. I can’t get support. I don’t know how to do it.’ That is the big opportunity that Linux and open source providers are missing.

That’s the big opportunity we’re pursuing at Freelock Computing. We just hired our first employee. Drop us a line if you’d like to help out…

Another good, brief story shedding insight into the economics of Open Source. It’s not just about licensing and deployment costs–it’s about investing in your people, which can generate bigger gains down the road. It’s not just saving money, it’s creating opportunity.

Expert: With open-source software, ROI tough to peg - Computerworld.

… and here’s a key quote from the article, from Robert M. Lefkowitz:

“Open-source provides a mechanism to identify the good [workers]” because “good people invest in themselves, learning technologies they can use throughout their careers,” he said. “Expertise matters. If you have better people, you’ll manage the hardware and software better.”

This essay is from an open source developer, talking about his motivations to write free software. It refers to a bunch of projects that may not mean anything to the general public, but it still provides insight into some of the key motivations. Hint: it’s not to make money…

OfB.biz: Open for Business - Qt, the GPL, Business and Freedom

From the article:

Microsoft angers us because it maliciously eliminates choice and then fails or never tries to address the needs of many.

Interesting analysis of the cost of software, applying the pricing model for financial instruments such as options and calls to support contracts: ONLamp.com: Calculating the True Price of Software.

From the article:

For the open source movement, perhaps a better way to position the change that OSS is making is this: we’re converting warrants on future maintenance and enhancements into options, which means that instead of having a sole supplier (warrants), we have created a third-party market (options) of these derivatives.

Today, there’s a review in the New York Times about Hot Property, a new book by Pat Choate that essentially claims the US is in technology decline because of “piracy.”

From the article:

Choate says that while industrializing countries may benefit from piracy, the world as a whole loses. ”Piracy and counterfeiting impede innovation: thieves do not invest in research, design, production, development or advertising. . . . The result is fewer new medicines, fewer advances in science, fewer new products, fewer new music CD’s, fewer new movies, less new software and higher prices for whatever is created.” Everyone is harmed, either directly or indirectly, ”when thieves steal from Microsoft and Disney.” And, he concludes, ”What is missing is the will of U.S. political leaders to confront those who are stealing U.S.-owned intellectual properties and with them the future of the American people.”

The irony here is that both Microsoft and Disney have risen to dominate their industries by building upon the innovations, and works, of others. In the case of Microsoft, most of the graphical desktop environment was not invented by Microsoft. It wasn’t invented by Apple, either. Both companies essentially copied the work of the Palo Alto Research Center (also known as PARC), a research laboratory that was part of Xerox Corporation.

Disney got its start with Mickey Mouse. Walt Disney created the cartoon character in a short 1928 animated film called Steamboat Willie. Steamboat Willie eventally turned into Mickey Mouse. But Steamboat Willie itself was based on a Buster Keaton film called Steamboat Bill, Jr, released less than a year earlier. And both characters came from an earlier song. As Lawrence Lessig writes in his book Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity:

It is not just from the invention of synchronized sound in The Jazz Singer that we get Steamboat Willie. It is also from Buster Keaton’s invention of Steamboat Bill, Jr., itself inspired by the song “Steamboat Bill,” that we get Steamboat Willie, and then from Steamboat Willie, Mickey Mouse. …

… Indeed, the catalog of Disney work drawing upon the work of others is astonishing when set together: Snow White (1937), Fantasia (1940), Pinocchio (1940), Dumbo (1941), Bambi (1942), Song of the South (1946), Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), Robin Hood (1952), Peter Pan (1953)…

The list goes on from there. These companies did not get to where they are by creating something brand new, isolated from the rest of our culture–they copied what was all around them, made some unique changes, and brought their remixed ideas to market.

But apparently, others that do the same thing with their works are “pirates,” and copying these works result in lost dollars to them. Never mind that “piracy” of Microsoft operating systems has helped to make them ubiquitous, and reinforce Microsoft’s monopoly.

Of course, not everyone thinks this way. Just Friday, one of the most influential venture capitalists of Internet startups, Joi Ito, wrote this about software patents in support of the recent decision by the European Union to reject them:

I … believe that the notion that software patents somehow help venture businesses is a red herring and that software patents are primarily a tool for software monopolies to stay keep the little guys out.

You can download Lessig’s book (for free) here. Read Ito’s post: Joi Ito’s Web: One venture capitalist’s view on software patents. And, for the next week if you sign up for free NY Times registration, you can read the review of Choate’s book: ‘Hot Property’: Freebooters of Industry.

Read and make up your own mind.

“Freedom is the oxygen of innovation, not its enemy.” - Eric S. Raymond, the person who coined the term Open Source.

He’s interviewed here: ONLamp.com: ESR: “We Don’t Need the GPL Anymore”.

Good Morning Silicon Valley has an interview with Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel. He talks about where the technology industry is going, comparing Microsoft to IBM. : An interview with Linus Torvalds.

Here’s an article from Builder AU that goes straight to the point of using open source for small business.

How to make money from Open source.

Interesting article about the open source and free software movements in the MIT Technology Review. While the author generalizes a little bit too much, he makes some interesting arguments.

Technology Review: How Linux Could Overthrow Microsoft

A ZDNet blog has an interesting post titled The rise of the open sorcerors, summarizing and putting a new spin on a Doc Searls’ editorial posted here: Getting Flat, Part 1 | Linux Journal.

The key criticism of Friedman’s book is that he keeps describing Open Source software in the context of proprietary software, portraying it as a big battle. To put Searls’s point succinctly: Open Source isn’t a new addition to the marketplace; it’s a new marketplace.

I’ve read a couple of Friedman’s books, and think he has some great insights. Looks like I’m going to have to pick this one up.