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> Of course, if your business is selling operating systems, development tools, databases and other infrastructure stuff, then, yup, open source has eaten your b
by fierarul 7y ago
> Of course, if your business is selling operating systems, development tools, databases and other infrastructure stuff, then, yup, open source has eaten your business.
I agree with what you said. With the caveat that some lucky few companies do seem to do well in this space too. Recently learned JetBrains (makers of IntelliJ) had $270M revenue/year and $100M net income in 2018.
- Edmond 7y agoIt shouldn't be surprising that JetBrains is doing well. Even with sectors like developer tools, there is a lot of room for creating value-added solutions that are proprietary, and that customers will happily pay good money for.
- jjeaff 7y agoI think it is surprising, especially considering the free open source options available that are not far behind intellij offerings like VS code.
- nine_k 7y agoEven they produce community editions of their software to drive up engagement. In 1990s, you turned a blind eye to small-time piracy to get engagement. Now you can offer a much better deal.
- kgwxd 7y agoJetBrains is in a unique position, they came from a time when closed IDEs were accepted. I doubt they could enter the market with the same business model today.