There was a recent comment on my blog [link removed] by Carlos (Thanks Carlos) which seems to state that vtiger is not committed to open source while the competition is.
This blog is to clear the air about it. Let me quote Carlos’s post as reference.
“One of the things that SugarCRM guys got right is their marketing – their message. I dont know if their community is responsive, or if the forum works; but I can go there and I’ll read a definitive message about the importance of open source in their strategy. The open source version is where the community contribute, it’s the one where a lot of eyeballs are fixed. And there’s no best way of catching a lot of bugs than to have a lot of people hunting them.”
Here one clearly sees the impact of marketing on facts. As Carlos himself acknowledges the Sugar boys have got their marketing right.
I would like to point out that for someone to have Open Source as an adjunct, as a marketing slogan and to proliferate the Commercial version is not exactly right but then marketing makes it seem ethical.
vtiger does not do any marketing so you can be assured that there is not going to be any news that is not coming from the horse’s mouth. I am one of the vtiger horses so you hear it live from me here and everywhere else. I cannot commit something and make life difficult trying to keep it and in the process, wean away from the actual priorities. This is so because vtiger believes in walking the talk. The competition are more into the Talk per se.
vtiger is committed to ONLY Open Source. This is not something that is easy to do as the past history of Open Source products will tell you but then, I firmly believe that it is difficult, yes but not unsurmountable.
vtiger will hopefully start making profits by March-May 2007 and this is solely because we have walked the talk. This has been solely because YOU have supported us and helped us when we were unstable. This has been solely because YOU believe – in being free and in free source.
No one can expect to have more marketing than THIS VERY FAITH that you all have in us.
I cannot commit to you that all the posts in the forums are going to be answered when vtiger has to make a livelihood too. vtiger’s livelyhood is through the support and that too the TRUE support not the ‘marketing-kind-of-support’. The product is free, the source code is free; do not expect the service to be free. Come on, draw the line somewhere. Help us in making vtiger better, self-sufficient. We are in it together.
We have come so far together, let us make life better. Life is Good actually! If all of us pool in just 10 minutes of our time in a day trying to make the wiki better, then, we can have at least 70% of the common queries answered right there in the wiki!
By buying the support contract, you are only supporting the Honest Open Source and not the ‘marketing-kind-of-open source’. Choose your pick. I am not going to feel disappointed if you choose the later as I cannot service something that I do not believe in myself.
You choose your pick
