Business-to-Business (B2B) Open Source Archetype
Characteristics: Solid control by founder and (sometimes grudging) acceptance of unpredictability by redistributors. This also implies a long fork-modify-merge cycle for partners, and thus a constant temptation on their part to fork permanently. This archetype aims at ubiquity. Its open source nature is designed to spur OEM adoption by partners and competitors across the industry and to drive out competing options in the same way pricing browsers at zero once discouraged new entrants into the browser market. It can also drive down the price of complementary products: for example, as Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) does for server hardware and Google’s Android operating system does for handheld devices.
It is worth noting that Google does not derive much direct revenue from Android. Instead, Android’s popularity puts Google’s products and search preferences in the hands of users, and that creates opportunities for Google. Android users default to Google’s search engine, buy media from Google, pay for apps in Google’s app store, provide a river of data for Google to mine, and favor Google’s app ecosystem (Calendar, Gmail, Maps, etc). All of that generates revenue and strategic advantage for Google. This archetype is thus a strategy for gaining marketshare as a revenue opportunity.
This model probably works best when run by a fairly large company with multiple ways of applying market pressure and multiple channels for distribution. It is difficult to wield without considerable financial resources and other strategic advantages.
Licensing: Almost always non-copyleft.
Community standards: In general, the lead company does not put much emphasis on welcoming or nurturing contributors; exceptions may be made for strategically important organizational partners.
Component coupling: Tightly coupled modules, to allow the lead company to market one unified product.
Main benefits: Can drive industry adoption of a technology that is strategically important to your organization.
Typical governance: Maintainer-led by a group within the lead company.
Examples: Android, Chromium
Compare to: with the Mass Market archetype, which can have similar effects on directly competitive products but is less likely to affect complementary products.
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