Karsten Gerloff, Free Software Foundation Europe - President

1. Free Software and business innovation
Karsten Gerloff
<gerloff@fsfeurope.org>
President
Free Software Foundation Europe
November 12, 2010

2. Gartner: 100% adoption rate until November
2009
“Adoption of open-source software (OSS) is
becoming pervasive, with 85 percent of
companies surveyed currently using OSS in
their enterprises and the remaining 15
percent expecting to in the next 12 months,
according to Gartner, Inc.”
Gartner Newsroom, 17 November, 2008

3. GNU/Linux is poised to become a 50 billion
dollar ecosystem by 2011.
Linux Foundation

4. What is Free Software?
Free as in Freedom!
1. use
2. study
3. share
4. improve

5. What is Free Software?
Free as in Freedom!
1. use
2. study
3. share
4. improve

6. What is Free Software?
Free as in Freedom!
1. use
2. study
3. share
4. improve

7. What is Free Software?
Free as in Freedom!
1. use
2. study
3. share
4. improve

8. What is Free Software?
Free as in Freedom!
1. use
2. study
3. share
4. improve

9. How does this work?
Software is covered by copyright
Developer grants license
(the right) license grants you Freedom

10. Commercial?
Those who claim that Free Software is non-commercial
a) don’t know what they’re talking about
b) want to sell you non-Free software
c) both.

11. Commercial?
Those who claim that Free Software is non-commercial
a) don’t know what they’re talking about
b) want to sell you non-Free software
c) both.

12. Commercial?
Those who claim that Free Software is non-commercial
a) don’t know what they’re talking about
b) want to sell you non-Free software
c) both.

13. Commercial?
Those who claim that Free Software is non-commercial
a) don’t know what they’re talking about
b) want to sell you non-Free software
c) both.

14. If it’s free, how can you earn money?
Free as in freedom, not price
Earn money in almost any way you can think of
Software is not a business. It’s the foundation for a business.

15. Abbildung: Red Hat at JMP Securities Annual Research Conference, May
11, 2010

16. Abbildung: Press release of German LinuxVerband, Dec. 17, 2009

17. Free Software and innovation
Monopolies (copyright, patents) act as a tax on innovation
Free Software = tax-free innovation
Study: Free Software saves European industry 36% on R&D1
1
Ghosh et al.: FLOSSImpact (2006), 11

18. Competition and cooperation
Businesses can cooperate and compete at the same time
Copyleft secures investment
Working together to improve common platform

19. Competition and cooperation: Linux kernel
Abbildung: Top 10 contributors to 2.6.35 Linux kernel. Greg
Kroah-Hartmann, LWN, July 14, 2010.

20. Software model: Free vs proprietary

21. Development model: closed vs open

22. Revenue model

23. What about the license sales?
Less than 20% of software revenue from proprietary packaged
software
More than 80% of software revenue has nothing to do with
license sales
Most programmers are paid for their time, not for licenses

24. Innovation unshackled
Free Software removes constraints on business innovation
Free Software enables “deep” service and support
Free Software builds skills and keeps spending local

25. Some business models
Product specialist: “best knowledge here”
Platform providers: quality, stability support
Integrators: Customised solutions for clients

26. Some more business models
Training and documentation
Compliance engineering
Dual licensing2
2
Daffara, Carlo: Our definition of OSS-based business models.
http://carlodaffara.conecta.it/?p=104

27. Those are just a few options.

28. Choose your own way
Do you have to give the software away? No.
Do you have to stick to a particular license?
No. (Not if it’s your own software, anyway.)
But choose your license wisely.
Do you have to contribute back?
No. But there are advantages:
Better integration with the rest of the codebase
Influence over the project’s direction

29. Choose your own way
Do you have to give the software away? No.
Do you have to stick to a particular license?
No. (Not if it’s your own software, anyway.)
But choose your license wisely.
Do you have to contribute back?
No. But there are advantages:
Better integration with the rest of the codebase
Influence over the project’s direction

30. Choose your own way
Do you have to give the software away? No.
Do you have to stick to a particular license?
No. (Not if it’s your own software, anyway.)
But choose your license wisely.
Do you have to contribute back?
No. But there are advantages:
Better integration with the rest of the codebase
Influence over the project’s direction

31. Choose your own way
Do you have to give the software away? No.
Do you have to stick to a particular license?
No. (Not if it’s your own software, anyway.)
But choose your license wisely.
Do you have to contribute back?
No. But there are advantages:
Better integration with the rest of the codebase
Influence over the project’s direction

32. Choose your own way
Do you have to give the software away? No.
Do you have to stick to a particular license?
No. (Not if it’s your own software, anyway.)
But choose your license wisely.
Do you have to contribute back?
No. But there are advantages:
Better integration with the rest of the codebase
Influence over the project’s direction

33. Choose your own way
Do you have to give the software away? No.
Do you have to stick to a particular license?
No. (Not if it’s your own software, anyway.)
But choose your license wisely.
Do you have to contribute back?
No. But there are advantages:
Better integration with the rest of the codebase
Influence over the project’s direction

34. Choose your own way
Do you have to give the software away? No.
Do you have to stick to a particular license?
No. (Not if it’s your own software, anyway.)
But choose your license wisely.
Do you have to contribute back?
No. But there are advantages:
Better integration with the rest of the codebase
Influence over the project’s direction

35. But how about selling licenses anyway?
“Open core” is a bait-and-switch:
Distribute basic version gratis
Sell non-free license for features
Vendor keeps benefits of Free Software for himself...
...while the customer doesn’t enjoy any freedom
Watchwords: “Community / Enterprise version”

36. Takeaways for businesspeople
Think clearly.
Where do you add value?
What basis do you build upon?
What are your constraints?
What are your opportunities?

37. Takeaways for businesspeople
Think clearly.
Where do you add value?
What basis do you build upon?
What are your constraints?
What are your opportunities?

38. Takeaways for businesspeople
Think clearly.
Where do you add value?
What basis do you build upon?
What are your constraints?
What are your opportunities?

39. Takeaways for businesspeople
Think clearly.
Where do you add value?
What basis do you build upon?
What are your constraints?
What are your opportunities?

40. Takeaways for businesspeople
Think clearly.
Where do you add value?
What basis do you build upon?
What are your constraints?
What are your opportunities?

41. Takeaways for businesspeople
Think together
Can you cooperate with others to take on a bigger task?
Think ahead
Governance: making your project last
Invest in suppliers?

42. Takeaways for policymakers
Please don’t block the road.
Fix public procurement!
Stick to the rules
Ask for control: Free Software, Open Standards
invest for the long term
Use Free Software strategically to help new businesses to
grow.
Free up public sector software.

43. More ideas for policymakers
Oppose software patents.
Be creative about regional development
Tax credits for Free Software R&D?

44. If you don’t do it, others will.

45. http://fsfe.org
gerloff@fsfeurope.org