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Sourceware Solutions

Michael Tiemann, Cygnus Support

Solving the Open Software Paradox

The more things change, the more they stay the same. The most significant change that resulted from the Open Systems revolution was that users started demanding solutions that wouldn't restrict their freedom. What has remained the same is that companies doing business in the Open Systems market must still preserve competitive advantage and scalability through a business model they can leverage. The proprietary business model has made these two truths a paradox: the more freedom you provide, the less leverage you retain, thus weakening the business. At the same time, the market is saying that the less freedom you provide, the less your products will be in demand. The solution to this paradox, which requires a new software business model, can be found by analyzing the free market trends which are already at work.

The Economic Shift in the Software Industry

The software industry of the 1980s was economically attractive -- margins were high, innovation was easier to attain, and market demands were such that any functioning software was a viable commercial product. As the industry has matured, the software market has begun to parallel the hardware market -- prices have flattened, margins have disappeared and only a limited number of vendors deliver products that are considered ``standard.'' Companies that were once considered revenue and technology leaders -- Ashton-Tate, Borland, Software Publishing, SCO, and Symantec, to name a few, are all struggling to survive in the 1990s.

As shrink-wrapped software product prices continue to drop, companies have to rethink their assumptions. Most are realizing that it has become economically infeasible for product companies to offer free service and support.

This trend is evident even at the desktop level, where companies such as Borland, Microsoft and Word Perfect are unbundling support services to provide customers with low-cost software products and alternative support options. They are all targeting support services as a new growth opportunity. Many new companies have emerged in the last three years for the sole purpose of providing technical support services, and many well known companies such as Arthur Anderson, Microsoft, and Oracle have created divisions for this purpose. Whether offering support as a product or offering software as a service, these vendors have found a way to turn off-the-shelf, generalized products into tailor-made solutions.

In adjusting to the service approach, the industry is acknowledging that users are not only interested in buying bits on a disk (software), but solutions (part of which may be bit-based). This shift, from the software-as-product model to the software-as-service model, will have a dramatic impact on how software is delivered, supported, and on how it evolves to meet users' needs.

In the product model, software vendors rely on licenses to control the price of each unit sold. Extensive technical support for software is limited because the core of the product, the source code, remains restricted. New product development is stymied because developers must anticipate the needs of their customers based on limited input. In the service model, support vendors must deliver value to their customers based on what they can add to the software, not what they can take away. To this end, the software needs constant, on-going support because it is through the continual improvement of software that value is truly distinguished.

The High Cost of Proprietary Product Models

Information products are economically interesting because they can be delivered as shrink-wrapped high-margin, low-cost goods or as highly flexible, high-value services. The key distinguishing appeal of software today is a combination of ease-of-use, independence from hardware platforms and the promise that it will not be obsolete by the time users finally master it.

Although proprietary software is an attractive business, there are several issues that are problematic for users. Most importantly, proprietary software makes it virtually impossible for users to participate directly in its development. Instead, user demands must be filtered through the marketing channel, approved by the business managers and then possibly implemented by the engineering department. Simple problems may take years to address.

The usual publishing model is based on the premise that duplication and distribution is far more expensive than authorship, yet in the case of software -- which can be duplicated at almost no cost and distributed worldwide via networks for nominal cost -- the reverse is true. The falling prices of shrink-wrapped software and the increased demand for high-quality technical support are spearheading the need for the market to resolve these inconsistencies.

Hardware technology improvements have produced an ever-improving performance at ever-decreasing cost. This trend reduces the risk of hardware purchases; combining this with open-systems interoperability, users can build globally optimal solutions from locally optimal pieces. On the software side, the situation is far from optimal: few packages interoperate with products from the same vendor, let alone other vendors. Because of this, each software purchase must be carefully considered and maintained, lest it become a threat to the existing infrastructure.

Users are now demanding the same improvements and security in software that they've seen in hardware: products whose prices reflect real costs, and which operate reliably with each other. These gains cannot be achieved while proprietary models divide rather than coordinate the players. Ultimately, the users will get their freedom of choice, and the survivors will be the vendors who can both offer and deliver what the users want.

The Sourceware Alternative

All software has a common denominator: it's written in some kind of source code. To some, the source code is the family jewels; to others, it is the key to freedom. In a growing number of areas, it can be both--profitable for organizations that enhance, modify, or distribute it, and highly valued by those who use it.

Sourceware is supported, centrally managed software whose source code is openly available. This lowers the cost barriers of product development, which keeps the source code robust and dynamic. Sourceware accelerates the evolution cycle--those who want to make improvements are free to do so and all users benefit from the contributions of others. Sourceware embodies all of the benefits of powerful, adaptable, reliable software and increases the speed of revisions. Therefore, Sourceware solves the economic problems of developing commercial software.

Sourceware is licensed to give users the freedom to use, distribute and modify the sources. It also provides a framework which defines baseline standards, reference implementations and a process for ongoing maintenance and enhancements that meet the needs for the commercial market. Sourceware is a very general solution that delivers the benefits associated with open systems without unnecessary overhead or expense.

One example of this approach is the X Window System. X is the de facto standard for multi-platform windowing systems. Created and regularly improved by a team at MIT, the X Window System plays a profound role in the UNIX marketplace. Even Sun Microsystems has agreed to discontinue development of its NeWS environment in favor of the standard X release. The X Window System is distributed for free. Users are encouraged to modify and adapt the software to meet their specific needs. Currently in release 6, the system vendor community and many end users have ported the code to virtually every processor and operating system platform, including Sun, HP, IBM, DEC and SGI. These companies have joined together to support the COSE desktop environment standard based on X. DOS, Windows, and Mac users have a wide variety of X server implementations available, providing freedom to access data and applications in the truest spirit of Open Systems.

Another example (which Cygnus supports as Sourceware) is GNU software. GNU is the de facto standard for cross-platform and multi-platform C and C++ compilers and debuggers. Within developer and university communities, the GNU tools are accepted as a powerful alternative to proprietary ones. Although the GNU tools support many platforms today, because they are Sourceware, they can also be rehosted or retargeted as new platforms emerge, thereby safeguarding commercial customers' investments in development across multiple platforms. As Sourceware, it is possible for customers to choose where to allocate resources, outsourcing development and support when necessary. Even traditional software companies find value for their customers in the Sourceware solution. Novell recently announced its intention to provide its NetWare developers with GNU development tools for NetWare based on UNIX. The tools make it possible for NetWare developers to deliver network services that are independent of hardware platforms and take advantage of the UNIX environment for development. Using these Sourceware tools, developers will increase their productivity by focusing on one development effort rather than on multiple platform issues. This strategy will open the architecture of the network, accelerating network application development and enabling true cross-platform development for the first time.

Sourceware finally delivers on the promise of open systems, hailed for years as the solution to the industry's problems. The Sourceware model allows customers to separate standards from vendors because it is a global solution. Because source code is readily available, anyone can make improvements to the software for their own purposes. Sourceware is a completely open solution without allegiance to any proprietary system. It preserves customers' investments in technology and allows support to become an integral part of software implementation.

Looking Forward

Proprietary vendors at first locked out everybody to keep competitors at bay. As interoperability became more important, these barriers affected the customer far more than the competition. Open hardware systems are profitable because they solved this problem while preserving economies of scale as their means of leverage.

Sourceware is the next logical step in the evolution of open systems: it preserves customers' investments in technology and allows support to become an integral part of software implementation. Ultimately, Sourceware will allow users to spend their development and support dollars more efficiently, advancing their competitive position. At the same time, the service model will create economic opportunities for software companies that adapt to the new market conditions.

[Sourceware is a registered trademark of Cygnus Support.]