Industry to Mozilla: go for it

Cynics may have scoffed at yesterday's announcement that the Mozilla Foundation was going commercial by creating a subsidiary for-profit corporation. But it looks like the software industry and analysts like the move, which Mozilla says will allow the group to more efficiently use revenue to fund software development. "We're seeing an evolution of open-source projects from pure voluntary efforts with uncertain long-term viability to models that make it easier for customers to place strategic bets on open-source software," Michael Goulde, an analyst at Forrester Research, told CNet. "Mozilla Foundation's move is very much in tune with this direction, using the commercial organization to develop a revenue stream that can support a professional staff that can manage and drive the project into the future." And if they change their mind and go public in a couple of years, I doubt any of those "professional staff" members will mind.

 

Tags: opensource