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Vistasource In Trouble
starseeker writes: "It looks like the financial picture is not good for Applix - "the company intends to report VistaSource as a discontinued operation in its audited financial statements." The financial report is online.
What happens to Applixware Office now?" For the backstory: Vistasource is the division of Applix - we've talked about this before. Still with the various K* options, the G* options, and OpenOffice the competition is tough - not to mention Abiword and all the others.
I don't know.. I'm one of those people who are interested in Linux and Open Source in general and appreciate the availability of source code (and may even contribute once in a while) but who don't see it as a silver bullet suitable for everything. I for one have never really believed that open source is a good business model and seeing all kinds of "open source companies" (that is, companies that have an open source related business model) fail only confirms my belief.
While some older companies like IBM might have some use of open source (their ventures into Apache and use of Linux for example), I see it largely as a PR manouver.
I recently read The Cluetrain Manifesto (www.cluetrain.com) and some of the stuff really hit me while a large part didn't. I mean, yeah, I believe companies should have conversations with the market, like open source does, and yeah, I believe in subverting hierarchy, something open source accomplishes, and yes, companies don't speak in a human voice, which open source does, but businesses need to keep secrets and everything can't and shouldn't be open.
The problem is that people (and therefore companies) don't have a lot of self confidence.. When they have stumbled upon some working piece of code that they refine into a product, they fear that if it got out into the open, their competitor would just reap the benefits of their hard labour and sell it for cheaper. Maybe their fear is rightly founded too! In any case, the result is that they hide the code as well as they can and try to make as much money from it as possible until the others "figure it out". The worst possible thing that could happen, they think, is if the competitor would get their secret!
People (and therefore also companies) are greedy and interested in making money. They do whatever gets them the most money - and preferably, gets them a lot of money soon! Open Source is not a great way to make a lot of money.
It's a question of values really.. It is very rooted into us people in the western world that money is the most important thing. For companies (publicly listed ones especially), money *IS* the most important thing. Whatever we do is determined by how much money that will get us. If we had different values; if we could work for the society, for example, and try to build as good a society as possible, then open source would probably blossom as a business model. Now, I just don't believe in it - not as a business model.. I for one am not surprised at open source businesses failing.
Unfortunately, the one that matched up was ApplixWare. It is a brilliant product: mature, stable, feature rich, extensible. Unlike StarOffice it gives you multiple windows in the context of the window manager you choose. Also unlike StarOffice, it performs well on older machines with limited memory. It has been far and away the best office suite for Linux, and if it really does fold we will all be worse off.
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
Over at my local Fry's recently I was checking what all was going on in the Linux software section. This once growing area of their store is starting to recede somewhat. Anyhow, spotted a boxed copy of Applix Office on the shelf for right around $100. I was pretty impressed with what I read on the box, so I decided to find out more about it.
When I got home I popped on over to the Applix web site. No mention of their making an office suite anywhere that I could find. I thought that maybe I had picked up on a different company, so I went to the search engines. Nope, right company, just no mention of an office suite anywhere.
Needless to say, I made no further attempt to go hunting down info. I may lay down $40 for some app that's a one time good deal, but when the price goes into the triple digits I'm going to want some support and upgrade options for down the road.
Well, there's all that and the fact that this company that is supposedly selling Unix products is hosting on a Windows box. That's just got to throw some warning flags right there.
The line must be drawn here. This far. No further.
From the report;
In December 2000 the Company entered into discussions with several possible buyers and expects to consummate a divestiture or otherwise discontinue the business in the first quarter of 2001. As a result, the Company intends to report VistaSource as a discontinued operation in its audited financial statements that will be included in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2000
It's safe to say they'll probably find a buyer (even if it's for a dime on the dollar).
The thing about Applixware is that it is a polished product. There are any number of Windows only software companies that could use this as their entry into the linux market.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
The reality of this market is that, unless you are Microsoft, almost no software product is a long-term money maker. Sooner or later, someone is going to take your market. Either people get stuff "for free" from Microsoft, or they get stuff "for free" from free or open source software efforts (the latter makes a lot more economic sense).
In this mature market, you can't expect to beat Microsoft with a clone of MSOffice and charge for it. If anything is going to beat MSOffice in the market, it will have to be at the very least free, and it probably has to offer some other compelling features as well. Some companies (like Sun and RedHat) still have enough incentive to sponsor those kinds of developments. But Star and Applix were anachronisms, and it is completely unsurprising that they have disappeared.