business models Resources on ZDNet

ZDNet Resources

The Comdexification of Linux: Linuxworld hits San Francisco next week with 11,000 attendees. The media is filled with stories about the "mainstreaming" of open source.Maybe. I'm more worried about open source Comdexifying, about Comdexification if you will.If you're under 30 you may barely know what I'm talking about. But back in the last century...; Tags: mass market, marketing, Linux Server OS, Linux Desktop OS, Linux, General, Events, business models; Blog posts 2007-08-03
Selling ads on Works because no one will buy it: Are there people out there who really do pay full retail price for Microsoft Works? I find that very hard to believe — even at the pocket-money price tag of $39.95. Works is the low-end business software suite that gets bundled with new PCs. The manufacturers buy it at an...; Tags: Microsoft, Business models; Blog posts 2007-08-02
What is stalling open source in healthcare?: As you may know, I launched a second ZDNet blog yesterday, on healthcare.In preparing for the launch I wrote a bit about what open source can teach healthcare and about what open source offers.Here I want to ask a related question, namely what is stopping open source in healthcare?Two forces are...; Tags: Strategy, Standards, marketing, management, Infrastructure, identity, Government, General, Development, business models; Blog posts 2007-08-02
Will video get a serious open source business model?: The media is going ga-ga over news Google will roll-out video fingerprinting technology in September to stop the posting of copyrighted material on YouTube.Much of the coverage has a nyaah-nyaah-nyaah quality to it. Soon, no more Colbert sneers Salon.Not exactly. Search under Stephen Colbert on Google Video and you'll still...; Tags: video, marketing, mass market, Internet, Legal, Google, Development, content, business models; Blog posts 2007-07-30
WHurley spins BMC into open source: William Hurley, who goes by WHurley, has been an open source advocate and organizer for many years.When he left Qlusters recently for BMC Software, the Houston-based company which began with accounting software and grew like a snip of oilpatch, I wondered how far he could spin that company toward open source.The...; Tags: Strategy, management, Enterprise Policy, business models, BSD, Applications; Blog posts 2007-07-27

Intel open source strategy starts to come together: With the release of its Thread Building Blocks template as open source, Intel's open source strategy is starting to come together.It's about the value of standards, and where in a product ecosystem those standards live.TBB moves control of parallelism out of the operating system, out of Windows or Linux, and places...; Tags: business models, Development, General, Hardware, Implementations, management, mass market, mobile, Strategy, wireless; Blog posts 2007-07-25
Dear Zonbu, think server: Zonbu is billing itself as a cheap client, a PC replacement, the true $100 laptop.But what if you called it a server?Its $12.95/month service charge is designed to pay for online updates, including security updates and backup services. If you have a home network, two kids each with a PC,...; Tags: Database Management, business models, Applications, General, Hardware, Implementations, LANs and WANs, Linux, Linux Desktop OS, Linux Server OS, management, marketing, mass market, Network Administration, Software as a Service, Strategy, support, wireless; Blog posts 2007-07-25
Is Zonbu the next revolution?: Zonbu (right), a start-up from French entrepreneurs Gregoire Gentil (Twingo) and Alain Rossmann (EO, OpenWave), combines a cellphone business model with open source software to deliver a complete Linux-based PC for as little as $99 and $12.95/month.The box is pre-loaded with a host of open source freeware -- Linux, Firefox, OpenOffice, Skype,...; Tags: Software as a Service, Linux Desktop OS, Hardware, General, Strategy, Linux, business models, mass market; Blog posts 2007-07-24
Psst. Want to know everything on your network?: Having divested their proprietary wireless security tool, the folks at Network Chemistry are using the open source process to develop a universal network scanning and reporting system.What CTO Chris Waters calls Project Wishbone is based on RogueScanner, a scanning tool originally created to find viruses and other rogue programs.Now the GPL...; Tags: support, Strategy, Software as a Service, Infrastructure, Hardware, GPL, General, business models, Applications; Blog posts 2007-07-23
A bumper crop of new mashup platforms: While application developers tend to roll their eyes at the concept of end-user mashups, they remain one of the more promising new trends in software development this year. And while it's certainly true it's early days yet for mashups, the tools that enable them remaining rather limited, seems to...; Tags: Wikis, Widgets, Web services, Web as Platform, Web 2.0 Platforms, Web 2.0, Two-Way Web, The Long Tail, SOA, Small Pieces, Loosely Joined, SaaS, RSS, Right To Remix, Rich Internet Applications (RIA), Products, Open APIs, Mashups, JSON, Governance, Global SOA, Gadgets, Enterprise Wikis, Enterprise Web 2.0, Enterprise Mashups, Encouraging Unintended Uses, Design Patterns, Customer Self-Service, Cost-effective scalability, Business Models, Ajax; Blog posts 2007-07-23
Does Everex benefit open source market?: Everex has released a $298 back to school desktop system built around Open Office and Windows Vista.While the company's press release emphasizes energy efficiency and productivity, the big news here is it's being sold at Wal-Mart.The marketing screams open source, but the PC itself runs Windows Vista, replacing only Microsoft...; Tags: Strategy, Not Linux, Microsoft, mass market, marketing, Hardware, General, education, business models, Applications; Blog posts 2007-07-20
Open source content moves forward: Right now I'm enjoying a sort of open source novel.1634: The Ram Rebellion has a standard, proprietary license on it. But it was produced through an open source process, a Web site where fans of Eric Flint's novel 1632 expand on the alternate history universe he created.Many popular books have fan...; Tags: publishing, Internet, General, Development, content, business models; Blog posts 2007-07-18
What is Intel's mobile Linux game?: Intel has a new mobile Linux project dubbed Moblin (right).It includes a Linux kernel, a framework for a user interface, a browser, a multimedia framework, and embedded image creation tools, along with developer resources.Sounds great until you realize there are a ton of other, similar frameworks under development. Nokia backs Maemo,...; Tags: wireless, telecom, Strategy, mobile, Linux, Hardware, General, Development, business models, Applications; Blog posts 2007-07-17
DRM and open source are the great divide: If there is any word other than Microsoft which can get an argument going among open source advocates, it is DRM. (The t-shirt is available here.)DRM, Digital Rights Management, is generally found in the form of an encryption wrapper giving control of the content to a rights holder. DRM is...; Tags: mass market, Legal, Hardware, GPL, General, FOSS, content, business models, Applications, Apple; Blog posts 2007-07-16
SIs putting product onto AppExchange: Microsoft partners wondering in the wake of last week's Worldwide Partner Conference how they'll adapt to the vendor's evolving 'Software plus Services' strategy may be enheartened by the experiences of some leading Saleforce.com partners. It seems that the SaaS model really does make it easier to create reusable code, which...; Tags: Ecosystems, CRM, Business models; Blog posts 2007-07-16
VARs still have Long Reach in small business market: In the real world of small business, costs matter more than license terms.These are Michael Whitehead's customers at The Long Reach in Ottawa, Canada."All businesses really care is can I get something that's cost effective, which does the job, which is priced to suit my business, and do I have someone...; Tags: Strategy, Software Licensing, resellers, mass market, marketing, Legal, General, Enterprise Policy, Database Management, business models, Applications; Blog posts 2007-07-13
The open source purpose of new spectrum: What is the purpose of frequency regulation?Is it to maximize returns for investors or to serve the public interest?Open source does not deliver as much software profit as the proprietary model, but it does deliver enormous value to customers. Thus the free market likes open source. If the purpose of "competition"...; Tags: business models, General, Google, Government, Hardware, Legal, mass market, mobile, politics, telecom, VOIP, wireless; Blog posts 2007-07-12
Microsoft CRM Live: still a lot to learn: Undercutting Salesforce.com is an obvious ploy for Microsoft to attempt with its CRM Live product, so the pricing it announced today shouldn't come as any big surprise. Salesforce.com has always priced at the high end of what it could get away with, and it's benefitted from five years of being...; Tags: Salesforce.com, Microsoft, Ecosystems, CRM, Business models; Blog posts 2007-07-10
What is the true value of open source?: There are many ways to measure the value of open source. But no one measure gives the true picture.(A print of this hangs in my living room. Its presence here will be explained.)Savio Rodrigues recently measured it through venture capital returns. But with open source squeezing costs out of software,...; Tags: business models, Events, General, Infrastructure, management, mass market, Strategy; Blog posts 2007-07-10
The open source way to truth: The big fight yesterday between Michael Moore and Wolf Blitzer may have a message for tech.It involves the limit of spin and the responsibility of journalists.Tech journalists are uniquely susceptible to spin. Because our sources are also our advertisers, publishers have to strike a balance to survive in the market.Others...; Tags: business models, content, General, Internet, marketing, mass market, politics, Strategy; Blog posts 2007-07-10