Hardware Podcasts

Open Source and Capitalism with Ashley Williams and Adam Jacob

Oxide and Friends · 24 Oct 2023 · 1h 39m · Episode 29

What this episode covers

Ashley Williams (former CTO of MPM, now at Akzo) and Adam Jacob (founder of Chef, now at Oxide Computer Company) join Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal to discuss the economic tensions between open source software and capitalism. They analyze the failure of the 'open core' business model, citing HashiCorp's license change and MongoDB's struggles as evidence that giving away core value for free destroys monetization potential. The group contrasts this with Red Hat's successful model of selling proprietary distributions and support, arguing that sustainable open source businesses must charge for the product itself rather than the code.

Most relevant to

large enterprises and companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
HashiCorp, Red Hat, MongoDB, MPM, Linux Foundation, CNCF, Docker, IBM, Microsoft
Products
Ubuntu, Artifactory, Chef, Terraform, Linkerd, Istio

Related episodes from other shows

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • Open Hardware Manufacturing Podcast · 1h 19m

    Ep. 12 - Improving FreeCAD ft. Brad Collette from Ondsel

    Brad Collette, cofounder and CTO of Ondsel, explains how his company uses an open-core model to fund and improve the open-source CAD software FreeCAD. He details the technical challenges of solving the topological naming problem and building a robust assembly workbench, which are critical for commercial viability. Collette discusses the strategic decision to focus on enterprise features like version control and cloud collaboration to subsidize core improvements for hobbyists, while navigating the complex relationship with the FreeCAD Project Association (FPA).

    EDA & CAD toolsStarting a product company
    9 chapters

  • The Circuit · 40m

    Episode 12: Arm's Business Model Shift

    Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg discuss a Financial Times report that Arm is shifting its business model from traditional royalties to a percentage of the selling price (ASP) of end products, a move driven by SoftBank's desire to maximize Arm's IPO valuation. They analyze the potential unintended consequences, such as penalizing RISC-V startups and pushing architecture licensees like Apple and NVIDIA back toward custom core development. The hosts also explore the broader implications for IP licensing, comparing Arm's challenges to Qualcomm's historical litigation, and examine the evolving landscape of intellectual property protection in China.

    Chips, FPGAs & semiconductorsPricing, margins & unit economics
    9 chapters

  • The Amp Hour · 1h 05m

    Shonky Stiver Stultiloquence

    Hosts Chris Gammell and Dave Jones discuss the economic impact of credit downgrades on startups and the tension between the DIY maker movement's growth and its original ethos, citing Wired articles and companies like Adafruit and SparkFun. Jones rants about Pinguino boards from Olimex for claiming open hardware status while withholding schematic and PCB files, highlighting a broader issue of 'open source washing.' The episode concludes with a review of a fraudulent car fuel saver device, a history segment on physicist Sir Neville Mott, and a discussion on Scott Adams' views regarding boredom and creativity.

    Open-source hardwareValidation & product-market fit
    7 chapters

  • Embedded.fm · 1h 09m

    231: Single Origin Coffee

    Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, discusses his new book 'WTF: What's the Future and Why It's Up to Us', exploring the shift from shareholder value to platform ecosystems and the future of work. He argues that while technology creates dislocation, it also generates new jobs through the 'law of conservation of attractive profits,' citing the rise of single-origin coffee as an example of value creation. O'Reilly also reflects on his role in defining open source, the importance of building trusted institutions, and the history of O'Reilly's iconic animal book covers.

    Growth, exits & acquisitionsAI & machine learning
    8 chapters

  • How I Built This · 1h 18m

    Substack: Chris Best and Hamish McKenzie

    Chris Best, former CTO of Kik Interactive, and Hamish McKenzie, a journalist and author, co-founded Substack to create a direct monetization platform for writers, moving away from the ad-supported models of Facebook and Twitter. They discuss the skepticism they faced when pitching the idea that people would pay for newsletters, the strategic decision to take a low 10% cut to align incentives, and how a free-speech stance helped them attract prominent journalists during the pandemic. The episode also covers their refusal of an acquisition offer from Elon Musk and their strategy to maintain financial independence by avoiding excessive fundraising.

    Starting a product companyPricing, margins & unit economics
    8 chapters

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by Oxide and Friends. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.