Redis modules and the Commons Clause [LWN.net]

Redis modules and the Commons Clause

Posted Sep 2, 2018 6:33 UTC (Sun) by pabs (subscriber, #43278)
In reply to: Redis modules and the Commons Clause by pabs
Parent article: Redis modules and the Commons Clause

Another followup on the economics of open source:

https://medium.com/@mattklein123/the-broken-economics-of-...

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Redis modules and the Commons Clause

Posted Sep 2, 2018 19:02 UTC (Sun) by cladisch (✭ supporter ✭, #50193) [Link] (2 responses)

> https://medium.com/@mattklein123/the-broken-economics-of-...

He argues from a venture capitalist point of view, which is, frankly, not very relevant for anybody else.
The most telling sentence:
> If we take consulting, services, and support off the table as an option for high-growth revenue generation (the only thing VCs care about), we are left with open core, SaaS, or some blurring of the two.

Yup, those off-the-table methods are how you do generate revenue from OSS.

Redis modules and the Commons Clause

Posted Sep 2, 2018 20:09 UTC (Sun) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link] (1 responses)

> He argues from a venture capitalist point of view, which is, frankly, not very relevant for anybody else.
Why is that? For individuals or small companies another option might exist - paid support, but this is really a thin gruel. It's unlikely you can grow your company just with that.

And for individuals perhaps Patreon or similar services might provide just enough money to be able to eat.

Redis modules and the Commons Clause

Posted Sep 3, 2018 6:30 UTC (Mon) by cladisch (✭ supporter ✭, #50193) [Link]

VCs specialize on high-growth startups. Not everything is a high-growth/high-risk/take-over-the-world enterprise, and other forms of private equity or debt exist.

In other words: it is in a VC's interest to change an (Open-Source) company into a high-growth one, but not necessarily in the company's interest.