[ashrafsam]

We saw some evidence that companies will prefer to work with the original developers for their own product's hosting, but I'll keep working on improving my understanding to the open source ecosystem. Very interesting thoughts.

[ensignavenger]

When I evaluate software, I see having multiple vendors offering to support/host the software as a good thing. After selecting a piece of software I then begin to evaluate vendor offerings. The vendor being deeply involved in the project- such as being the original creator or otherwise being a major contributor, is a huge plus.

Having 100% of a small pie is often worse than having a good percent of a larger pie. Fostering a large Open Source ecosystem increases the size of the pie- even if you have to share some of it.

Of course, any business is a lot of work, whether your software is Open Source or proprietary. Open Source is a great strategy, but it doesn't guarantee success.

[ashrafsam]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, we are seeing this pattern indeed. I agree that it doesn't guarantee success, we're inspired by open source apps that compete in being better software rather than only privileged as open source.