Part 1 of this two-part series addresses the special challenges inherent in fixing problems as they arise in open-source software. Part 2 takes a look at some potential solutions. Companies that provide third-party support for open-source software can be divided into two groups, roughly speaking. In the first group are what could be called "professional services companies" -- those vendors who provide support for a specific platform. An example is Progeny, which now patches the versions of Red Hat the leading Linux vendor no longer supports.
The second group is comprised of management companies -- firms that build software to administer the open-source stack. An example is Covelent, which builds an application that provides a user interface to manage the full stack of open-source programs. The division between these two types of vendors is far from clear. In some situations, Covelent provides patches for software it did not write. And Progeny -- if it has built a custom distribution for a customer -- provides management. What is clear is that as open-source becomes ever more prevalent in the enterprise, these types of third-party vendors will play an increasing role.
News source: NewsFactor
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