VA Linux is betting that the software and methodology of SourceForge itself will be attractive to tech companies hoping to improve their engineers' collaborative efforts. Historically, the bulk of programmers have worked largely in isolation from one another on fragmented sections of projects. The market success and stability of open-source software such as Apache, the various tools and utilities produced by the GNU project and Linux has made information technology firms eager to adopt the open-source approaches of tight teamwork and massive peer review, where thousands of interested hackers find and fix coding flaws.

SourceForge OnSite is a package that includes hardware, software and services that can operate behind a company's Internet firewall for open and non-open-source programming. Essentially, it's a distillation of the tools available for free at SourceForge. Already, one Silicon Valley powerhouse, Agilent -- formerly the testing equipment arm of Hewlett Packard -- is a customer. VA Linux won't reveal the names of its other SourceForge OnSite customers. But Hall says there's been "tremendous interest" from software companies.

"(SourceForge OnSite is) going to be a major part of our business," he says. Which may explain why the seemingly altruistic SourceForge is surviving the VA Linux cuts. The day after the grim Feb. 20 financial report, VA Linux sent a memo to the SourceForge community explaining that SourceForge pulls in revenue through banner ads, corporate sponsorships and SourceForge OnSite.

VA Linux is not alone in attempting to capitalize on the process of creating open-source software. Brian Behlendorf's Collab.net is aimed squarely at the same target. Collab.net has set up sites for about a dozen firms hoping to tap into open-source expertise and interest -- one example is a site where Sun Microsystems invites coders to work on its package of personal productivity programs, StarOffice. A related effort launched by Behlendorf is Tigris.org, which is hosting online development of a number of specific open-source coding tools, such as a new and improved CVS program. Tigris.org has a total of 60 users. Both Collab.net and another starup, OpenAvenue, sell products designed to help information technology companies get their employees using open source-like collaboration tactics. Both these services run completely over the Web without a hardware purchase.

Behlendorf expects this type of product -- which can be configured to include contributions from software engineers at business partners -- to make up the bulk of Collab.net's business.

There also are what might be called coding marketplaces. SourceXchange, part of Collab.net, links developers with open-source projects funded by businesses. Asynchrony.com hosts open-source and closed-source projects for developers and then markets resulting programs. Up to 90 percent of revenues go back to the programmers -- "Code for love and money!" the site urges.

Behlendorf and Hall are both bullish on the prospects of open-source tools and methods becoming a valuable, potent force in the world of commercial software. There are about 12 million software developers worldwide, and about $1,000 per coder is spent annually on productivity tools, Behlendorf reasons. He expects that $12 billion market to jump to $15 billion by 2004. So far, he adds, only about 1 percent of programmers practice open source-style coding.

"This industry is going to be huge. It already is huge," he says. "That's plenty of revenue for a number of open-source companies to go after."

Commercial firms are also paying programmers to work on free and open-source projects at SourceForge. Jabber.com, for example, pays programmer Dave Smith to devote himself to the Gabber project. Jabber.com earns revenues by selling copies of Jabber and offering professional services to firms using the instant messaging program. Gabber could conceivably make Jabber.com's business grow by increasing the number of potential Jabber users.

The full-time job at Jabber.com was a welcome surprise to Smith. Until he landed the gig last February, Smith worked as an information systems professional for a small company in Florida, and hacked away on open-source projects when he got home at night. He was amazed to find that the Denver company wanted him to work on Jabber-related software -- at twice his salary.

"I never really thought I'd make a living doing open-source stuff," he says.

The Free Software Project
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