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Not always true, though. History is littered with examples of products that gained traction not because they were better, but because they were free. (See: BIND

Not always true, though. History is littered with examples of products that gained traction not because they were better, but because they were free. (See: BIND vs Jeeves, Stanford's Unix vs Berkeley's Unix, Minix vs Linux, Apache vs Microsoft/Netscape) At one point in all these product's lives they were lousier and smaller as compared to their competitors. But they won out because the low barrier to adoption (read: free) drove usage, and from usage, more improvements.

revorad 16y ago
Thanks for pointing those out, I hadn't thought of them and can perhaps be accused of survivorship bias. I don't know about the first two examples but isn't Linux actually better than Minix and Apache certainly better than Microsoft? In any case, this is a bit of an unfair comparison because these are examples of open source vs proprietary, not product quality primarily. In the context of the OP's blog post, we are talking about winning in terms of building a profitable business, for which I believe building a good product and selling it is a better strategy than getting popular by giving away a crap product for free. The gist of the matter is that you should be clear what you are selling: * a product * advertising space/lead generation (if you are free) * yourself (acquisition) I see most web startups are going for the second and third options, but it seems it is mostly out of fear and the status quo, not careful consideration of the pros and cons.
- shadowsun7 16y ago
  > I don't know about the first two examples but isn't Linux actually better than Minix and Apache certainly better than Microsoft? When they first started out, both were lousier, scrappy, free products. > In any case, this is a bit of an unfair comparison because these are examples of open source vs proprietary, not product quality primarily. There is nothing unfair about this comparison. Releasing free products and making money on other things has always been a viable way to compete against bigger, more established players. See: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000056.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000056.html
  - shadowsun7 16y ago
    Oops, I meant: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html Hope this helps.
  - revorad 16y ago
    But Linux wasn't started with that motive and I guess neither was Apache.
  - Lozzer 16y ago
    Was IIS even out there when the first version of Apache was released?

revorad 16y ago

Thanks for pointing those out, I hadn't thought of them and can perhaps be accused of survivorship bias. I don't know about the first two examples but isn't Linux actually better than Minix and Apache certainly better than Microsoft? In any case, this is a bit of an unfair comparison because these are examples of open source vs proprietary, not product quality primarily. In the context of the OP's blog post, we are talking about winning in terms of building a profitable business, for which I believe building a good product and selling it is a better strategy than getting popular by giving away a crap product for free. The gist of the matter is that you should be clear what you are selling: * a product * advertising space/lead generation (if you are free) * yourself (acquisition) I see most web startups are going for the second and third options, but it seems it is mostly out of fear and the status quo, not careful consideration of the pros and cons.

shadowsun7 16y ago
> I don't know about the first two examples but isn't Linux actually better than Minix and Apache certainly better than Microsoft? When they first started out, both were lousier, scrappy, free products. > In any case, this is a bit of an unfair comparison because these are examples of open source vs proprietary, not product quality primarily. There is nothing unfair about this comparison. Releasing free products and making money on other things has always been a viable way to compete against bigger, more established players. See: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000056.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000056.html
- shadowsun7 16y ago
  Oops, I meant: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html Hope this helps.
- revorad 16y ago
  But Linux wasn't started with that motive and I guess neither was Apache.
- Lozzer 16y ago
  Was IIS even out there when the first version of Apache was released?