* One practical question is whether you can do a _useful_ subset of your stuff as open source... if the open source part is worthless without the "proprietary i

* One practical question is whether you can do a _useful_ subset of your stuff as open source... if the open source part is worthless without the "proprietary icing" then nobody will care about it, so you get no value from open source. * A related practical question of course is whether there are customers who will still want to buy the proprietary icing even though there's an open source useful subset. * How hard is it for competitors to replicate your proprietary icing? Is the community likely to replicate it? * One of the main competitive advantages of most open source companies is that the key upstream developers behind the project work for the company. Do you have these developers? If so others will be at a disadvantage when it comes to offering support and services. * Do you want a business that is based on license fees or one based more on support and services? * Do you have a good way to market the product and get a lot of people interested, other than through an open source project? * Do you want to spend time on community building and ensuring outside contributors can be productive? Can you put development discussions in the open?