4 ms·

What's the economics behind many tech companies sharing their tools?

by Tinyyy 11y ago

DAddYE 11y ago
Mostly free beta tester and patches BUT also increase a LOT your chances to hire.
Jake232 11y ago
It often attracts talented engineers; tech companies are always after talented engineers.
ihsw 11y ago
Prospective employee's use public showcasing as a meter stick for who's who. GitHub projects notably exemplify this -- not only is it a painless/cheap indicator of an employee's skillset, it also works for companies too. On top of that, it fosters communication between teams in the industry and (in some cases) serves as a recruitment channel. Those that contribute in a meaningful manner to your open-source projects must meet certain standards and expectations, and finding such people is difficult. In this case they come to you.
aikah 11y ago
PR, influence, beta testing, 3rd party devs patching bugs for you for free ...
onedev 11y ago
It moves the industry forward? Also having the empathy to recognize that if you've built your success on top of free tools then it bodes well to contribute back to that same community that enabled your success. Think of it like an Alumni network.
tedks 11y ago
They get to spend less on training, making employees more commoditized.
- tedks 11y ago
  I'm curious as to why this is downvoting while the top-voted response has this exact same thing in it. Is HN just allergic to anything that isn't cheerleading the software industry?
feverishaaron 11y ago
I see this as a recruiting tool. Designers want to work for a company that "gets" designers' needs.
qq66 11y ago
The large tech companies benefit from a thriving tech ecosystem: companies using these tools are much more likely to become partners or acquisition targets than they are to become direct zero-sum competitors.
simula67 11y ago
Not from perspective of design, but from open source software development. 1. Positive PR 2. External targeted contributions. For example, most people submitting patches to open source software are facing some issue as a user. If they are experiencing the issue others may also be experiencing similar problems. This is a much better way of driving development compared to doing it post expensive market research. 3. Marketing 4. Recruiting vehicle 5. Increasing the size of markets. For example Google is trying to bring more people online with Android to increase the size of search market. 6. Commoditizing complements http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html 7. Reducing the cost of training new employees 8. Increasing their influence in which direction to take the industry. For example setting standards for server hardware with Open Compute Project. 9. Free testers 10. Improving employee morale
kingi 11y ago
Those answers are just awesome and exactly reflect the way how modern software business works. Please - big IT corporations - breath, understand, embrace and internalize what's written here. It should be part of every company strategy!!

What's the economics behind many tech companies sharing their tools?

by Tinyyy 11y ago

What's the economics behind many tech companies sharing their tools?

DAddYE 11y ago

Mostly free beta tester and patches BUT also increase a LOT your chances to hire.

Jake232 11y ago

It often attracts talented engineers; tech companies are always after talented engineers.

ihsw 11y ago

Prospective employee's use public showcasing as a meter stick for who's who. GitHub projects notably exemplify this -- not only is it a painless/cheap indicator of an employee's skillset, it also works for companies too. On top of that, it fosters communication between teams in the industry and (in some cases) serves as a recruitment channel. Those that contribute in a meaningful manner to your open-source projects must meet certain standards and expectations, and finding such people is difficult. In this case they come to you.

aikah 11y ago

PR, influence, beta testing, 3rd party devs patching bugs for you for free ...

onedev 11y ago

It moves the industry forward? Also having the empathy to recognize that if you've built your success on top of free tools then it bodes well to contribute back to that same community that enabled your success. Think of it like an Alumni network.

tedks 11y ago

They get to spend less on training, making employees more commoditized.

tedks 11y ago
I'm curious as to why this is downvoting while the top-voted response has this exact same thing in it. Is HN just allergic to anything that isn't cheerleading the software industry?

feverishaaron 11y ago

I see this as a recruiting tool. Designers want to work for a company that "gets" designers' needs.

qq66 11y ago

The large tech companies benefit from a thriving tech ecosystem: companies using these tools are much more likely to become partners or acquisition targets than they are to become direct zero-sum competitors.

simula67 11y ago

Not from perspective of design, but from open source software development. 1. Positive PR 2. External targeted contributions. For example, most people submitting patches to open source software are facing some issue as a user. If they are experiencing the issue others may also be experiencing similar problems. This is a much better way of driving development compared to doing it post expensive market research. 3. Marketing 4. Recruiting vehicle 5. Increasing the size of markets. For example Google is trying to bring more people online with Android to increase the size of search market. 6. Commoditizing complements http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html 7. Reducing the cost of training new employees 8. Increasing their influence in which direction to take the industry. For example setting standards for server hardware with Open Compute Project. 9. Free testers 10. Improving employee morale

kingi 11y ago

Those answers are just awesome and exactly reflect the way how modern software business works. Please - big IT corporations - breath, understand, embrace and internalize what's written here. It should be part of every company strategy!!