December 18th, 2008
I would assume I know a thing or two about startups. For starters, I’ve attempted a couple myself, giving me an inside view of entrepreneurship. The many entrepreneurs that I’ve gotten to know over the years of organizing Proto.in help give me a peek into the overall ecosystem.
Almost the bulk of the startups that I know of start off using Open Source software or something that’s available for free. PHP is the language of choice for web development. Consequently, MySQL the pick for database. For corporate email, Hosted GMail for domains rules. Google apps for everything with collaboration. Skype for teleconferece. OpenOffice for docs & spreadsheets. If you notice, the underlying common denominator is the cost. It’s zilch. You can’t argue with ‘Free’. For an entrepreneur who is starting off on a shoestring of budget, this *is* a big deal.
It’s a good thing that Microsoft has realized this. Their latest release of the BizSpark program is a great long term vision to ally with the startups and at the same time take on the Open Source onslaught in their own home ground.
Through the BizSpark program, Microsoft is giving away most of its software for virtually free. Check this out. Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server, BizTalk Server and Systems Center, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, MSDN Premium subscription, Microsoft Express Studio (design tools), Microsoft Windows (Vista, XP, all Ultimate & enterprise editions), All SDKs, and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional. In case you didn’t notice, that’s pretty much a bulk of MS’ key offerings. All free for 3 years. Add to this free support.
This reminded me of my home town, Pondicherry’s strategy to boost tourism and business. They gave tax holidays for 5 years to all new hotels and IT companies. No taxes at all. You take home all the profit you make. Ventures started flooding in. It’s been a very successful program. This year that holiday comes to an end, and now the government will benefit from its five year patience because the taxes from these companies will start flowing in.
The strategy is the same for Microsoft. Encourage the startups to use Microsoft products. The first 3 years is the most crucial for startups to grow and they are giving their help and support at this crucial period of their growth. Once these fledgling startus metamorph into an established company, they get to reap the benefits of selling both new software and support.
You have to give it to Microsoft for chalking out a long term strategy across 82 countries.
Will this affect Open Source? One would be tempted to answer ‘yes’ but in the long run, this competition is actually good for the community. It will make them push the bar even higher resulting in better products.
Competition is always good.
19 Responses to “Microsoft v/s Open Source. The Startups Win”
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To add more to the open source software listing, Here is a complete list http://www.osalt.com
Napoleon
http://neps.in
Well, competition might be good, but for Startups unfortunately, BizSpark is totally irrelevant. Open source software is not just about cost. It’s about being able to modify the tools you use, and being able to share knowledge. And innovating at a rapid pace.
An OS company that takes 4 years to put out an upgrade to its’ OS has no chance against something like Linux, where a dozen different distros put out upgrades every 6 months.
Hitching your wagon to Microsoft products is suicide for technology startups. Offering microsoft technology to startups at zero cost, to recall an infamous allegory, is like putting lipstick on a pig that won’t fly.
Thanks Kiruba !
Similarly, Microsoft also has recently launched DreamSpark for students worldwide. They just need to verify their student status and start downloading almost all MS Software.
Vel @ TCS
as we are students of college, we have free access to almost every Microsoft software for free!!:):):):) with supporT:):)
I was just seconding anonymous’ comment:)
Often people misunderstand open source software with free software.
Anyway, with my experience on MS products, even if it is free, I do not want it. Because I have alternatives that are open source and free for my usage.
Nonetheless it is definitely something for those that are already locked into MS platform, they get some of their money back.
vamsee provides great insight..”free software” is often misunderstood. Though cost is one thing, the ability to go change something, tweak it for performance or bug fixes is crucial.
I agree with Vamsee
I agree with Vamsee’s comments, sad but true.
Really good news. Thank you for sharing.
It might take the OSS quite long to come up with something like sharepoint, management studio, visual studio, etc. Till then, BizSpark might be the best option (keeping in mind the majority of startups’ customer base).
Need to restore my site backup, my blog wont work
@Krupa, you’re missing the point. OSS doesn’t try to copy MS technologies. Simply put, OSS does not need to. If you look closely at the OSS alternatives, you will understand why.
Nobody seriously uses an IDE like VS.net to do OSS development (with the exception of Eclipse for Java, maybe). A simple text editor will do. We don’t need something as grand as Sharepoint for something that will be solved by good old wikis and BPEL engines.
If you mean management studio as in SQL Server management studio, give me a break. A console is all you need to manage a database, even if they’re enterprise grade. Plus, even a basic open source database beats SQL Server feature-wise (features that matter, like ACID compliance, not point-and-click kind of features).
So why exactly does a startup needs to use BizSpark again? Yeah, all the tools you mentioned are the cozy places that big companies need to hide behind a famous name. It’s the same thing as that age-old famous idiom “nobody gets fired for buying IBM”. Only, it’s Microsoft now.
Vamsee,
Your opinions seem to be biased.
It is fine to have objective views, but being biased would just mean that the comments start making no sense!
You seem to mix up things like SharePoint and wikis – they solve two different purposes. I am yet to see the kind of integration that you get with Microsoft Office and the various other products. You cannot beat the tight cohesiveness of these products that just makes it easier to work with – both for developers and end-users.
OSS does have its benefits, but Microsoft software can definetely help startups offer more value to their customers and end-users.
If you were a startup that didnt look at both OSS and Microsoft objectively, and stayed biased, you’ll have a competitor throw you out of business in no time!
@Anonymous, come on, at least sign your name when you make such remarks. I’m not intimately aware of MS Sharepoint, but here’s what wikipedia says:
Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) is the basic part of Microsoft SharePoint, offering collaboration and document management functionality by means of web portals, by providing a centralized repository for shared documents, as well as browser-based management and administration of them. It allows creation of Document libraries, which are collections of files that can be shared for collaborative editing. SharePoint provides access control and revision control for documents in a library.”
Can you tell me what part of that functionality is NOT offered by a simple oss wiki?
So I am biased. Please point out where and why I am biased?
‘Cohesiveness’ and user experience are for end users. I’m yet to see why cohesiveness matters for developers unless you have a large amount of Microsoft technology already lying around. Or plan to buy into the Windows platform completely.
I’m not sure if you know what business I run, but if I tell my clients that I’m gonna use Microsoft technology to build their web products, they’ll laugh at me.
I’ll be glad to be thrown out of business by a competitor who uses MS technology. I’m willing to take that risk
.
@Vamsee,
To answer your main question, why startups need BizSpark: Startups need to concentrate more on productivity and not on developing opensource. I think we all have to first work to support our family rather than OSS or Microsoft.
That being said, I beg to differ from your views on the aforementioned microsoft products and “open source”. First of all, Microsoft is not anti-OSS. Free software of course is quite different.
I am not quite sure what made you say nobody uses VS.;NET seriously to do OSS development. As far as I have seen, I find VS.NET the most convenient tool for .NET applications. SharpDevelop is there, MonoDevelop is there, and Eclipse plugins are there (I have tried all these and am impressed with SharpDevelop of course). Perhaps you believe OSS developed with microsoft technologies are not OSS at all? Again, I think you are seeing OSS as Free software.
I am also not sure what version of SQL Server you are using, but the last two releases (2005 and 2008) of SQL Server are ACID compliant. Also, I accept “console is what one need to manage a database”, but Management Studio is more thank that, not just something like phpMyAdmin. SSIS (DTS previously), data import export wizard, stored procedure editor, query editor, and so many other features cannot be given by a console. And Management Studio is the best tool in all these aspects. Of course we can use C++ for web programming, but why use PHP? Productivity, right?
I have used quite a number of database servers starting from sqlite and ms access through to mysql, sql server in production systems and even post gres in a maintenance project… but could not see a reason how even a “basic open source database” can beat SQL Server.
It makes sense to use Drupal or Joomla or DotNetNuke for a basic (but big) CMS-based site. However, a startup dependent on such CMS wont be able to survive for long unless they know how to customize them, and create new modules to fit the customer requirement. So it needs to be customized. And here comes the cost of customization. How much can a startup company afford to pay a “open source developer” vs “Microsoft developer” vs “developer”? I believe versatility is what is needed for a developer working in a startup. However, I also believe a fresher can soon be productive with microsoft products than with “notepad” coding.
In the same way we cannot compare wiki to Joomla, we also cannot compare Drupal/Joomla to SharePoint, much less wiki to Sharepoint, as the previous Anonymous’ previous comment points out. Just to start with, can a Wiki even authenticate NT logins against LDAP? Or can we at least edit Microsoft Word (or OpenOffice.org) documents through Wiki? Collaboration has a different meaning in a Wiki world. Of course Word is easier than HTML for non-techie.
And let me know how productivity increases when you use an IDE instead of notepad.
I am not arguing for Microsoft, but just giving my opinion on the various tools I am having a chance to work with. There are some good tools than Microsoft’s like Photoshop rather than Paintshop Pro (not GIMP), Flash, Dreamweaver than Frontpage, fontforge, NHM Writer and eKalppai than microsoft’s built in input method, etc. to name a few that I use frequently.
As in the title of this post, with Microsoft v/s open source, the startups win. And that is exactly what everyone wants: how do we win and not a dogma.
@vamsee, both of us posted around the same time, just a minute late.
Sharepoint (Portal server) is different from Windows Sharepoint Services.
I also forgot to mention, I have never said OSS copying Microsoft or the vice versa even. I am sorry if my sentence sounded as such. At the same time, alternatives cannot be equivalent.
Completely disagree with Vamsee. Stating delays in Vista release as a reason for not using .net as a development platform is nonsense.
Dear Mr. Vamsee,
WSS is a free edition of Share Point.
MOSS is the paid version that has workflows, search and other super cool collaboration features that is yet to be matched by any “single” competing product.
Reading prodcut description in wikipedia and making statements for or against it is an immature decision.
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i look ahead to your next article !!