# Open Source and Capitalism with Ashley Williams and Adam Jacob

- Show: [Oxide and Friends](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends)
- Published: 2023-10-24
- Length: 1h 39m
- Episode: 29
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2023-10-24-open-source-and-capitalism-with-ashley-williams-and-adam-jacob
- Listen: https://share.transistor.fm/s/ca5bb536

## Summary

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.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2023-10-24-open-source-and-capitalism-with-ashley-williams-and-adam-jacob#t=0) Introduction and Bryan's Talk Recap
- [2:24](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2023-10-24-open-source-and-capitalism-with-ashley-williams-and-adam-jacob#t=144) HashiCorp as the New Villain
- [8:20](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2023-10-24-open-source-and-capitalism-with-ashley-williams-and-adam-jacob#t=500) Corporate Open Source Anti-Patterns
- [21:03](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2023-10-24-open-source-and-capitalism-with-ashley-williams-and-adam-jacob#t=1263) The Broken Open Core Model
- [27:36](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2023-10-24-open-source-and-capitalism-with-ashley-williams-and-adam-jacob#t=1656) Red Hat vs. Ubuntu Monetization
- [32:32](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2023-10-24-open-source-and-capitalism-with-ashley-williams-and-adam-jacob#t=1952) MPM, Artifactory, and Infrastructure Margins
- [46:17](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2023-10-24-open-source-and-capitalism-with-ashley-williams-and-adam-jacob#t=2777) Venture Capital, Net Margin, and Sustainability
- [58:52](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2023-10-24-open-source-and-capitalism-with-ashley-williams-and-adam-jacob#t=3532) Value Capture and the Social Contract
- [1:26:05](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2023-10-24-open-source-and-capitalism-with-ashley-williams-and-adam-jacob#t=5165) Foundations, Consolidation, and Future Models

## Topics

- [Pricing, margins & unit economics](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/pricing-and-unit-economics)
- [Growth, exits & acquisitions](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/growth-exits-and-acquisitions)
- [Intellectual property](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/intellectual-property)
- [Leadership, teams & culture](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/leadership-and-culture)

## Most relevant to

large enterprises, companies scaling up

## Mentioned

- HashiCorp (company)
- Red Hat (company)
- Ubuntu (product)
- MongoDB (company)
- MPM (company)
- Artifactory (product)
- Chef (product)
- Terraform (product)
- Linux Foundation (company)
- CNCF (company)
- Docker (company)
- IBM (company)
- Microsoft (company)
- Linkerd (product)
- Istio (product)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [Ep. 12 - Improving FreeCAD ft. Brad Collette from Ondsel](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/open-hardware-manufacturing-podcast/2024-01-18-ep-12-improving-freecad-ft-brad-collette-from-ondsel) (Open Hardware Manufacturing Podcast)
- [Episode 12: Arm's Business Model Shift](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-circuit/2023-03-28-episode-12-arms-business-model-shift) (The Circuit)
- [Shonky Stiver Stultiloquence](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2011-08-09-shonky-stiver-stultiloquence) (The Amp Hour)
- [231: Single Origin Coffee](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2018-01-25-231-single-origin-coffee) (Embedded.fm)
- [Substack: Chris Best and Hamish McKenzie](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2025-05-12-substack-chris-best-and-hamish-mckenzie) (How I Built This)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2023-10-24-open-source-and-capitalism-with-ashley-williams-and-adam-jacob. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to Oxide and Friends.