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Snort Creator Makes Good
Anonymous Coward writes: "Robin Miller, aka Roblimo, has written a great analysis of one of the first Open Source companies to be profitable before their IPO, Sourcefire! In this 'local boy makes good', we read about Team Fortress-playing programmer Marty Roesch, who writes Snort to beat his online gaming addiction. Now Snort is one of the most successful Intrusion Detection Systems out there and Marty's start-up is going gangbusters. Robin explains how Marty's company started in his basement (like Apple's garage), got profitable, then got venture capital in a time when everyone swears there is no venture. Marty even offers jobs at Sourcefire for the Slashdot crowd, 'Linux zealots, Open Source gurus, self-starters who are self motivating so I can just turn them loose...'"
Clicked on Careers and don't see anything for Linux zealots...
Technical Writer and Marketing Manager don't quite fit the bill.
Am I looking in the wrong place?
...and thought it was "Snort Creator Makes God".
I was like, whoa, cool...
Can it still detect intrusions when its being hit by an infinite number of open source monkeys?
It's good to see people who are making a difference in the open source world and not just criticize it!
------
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
With a name like snort he is probably making a bunch of money off of people who think they're buying some cocaine.
I'm sure some of you would prefer the Windows version of Snort, put together by Silicon defense.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Linux zealots, Open Source gurus, self-starters who are self motivating so I can just turn them loose...
...are actually off doing something interesting, rather than spending their time fucking about on Slashdot.
--saint
Not really surprised...you had to state that he's offering jobs, didn't you?
Venture capitalists are not in for the long run, they want to capitalize their investments in the mid term. Quite some companies went bankrupt or got in difficulties after external money and the demand for quick market grab came in and drove solid growth strategy out. Look at SuSE for an example from the Linux world.
Disclaimer: I'm owner and CEO of a (privately held, incorporated) company. We still make profits, even in this harsh market, because we didn't join the hype train, but brought solid add-on value to our customers. I wish Marty Roesch luck in choosing his business strategy...
Joachim
People don't write Manifestos any more -- what's going on in this world? [Frank Zappa]
First go read the newsforge article.... Okay, the joke is:
Step one: develop open source software
Step two: mumble, mumble
Step three: profit!
Now, it seems that step two is revealed. It's actually a few steps. Now, for the first time ever:
Step two (a): Come up with (proprietary) tools that make the basic (GPL) Snort code easy to understand and use for non-technical managers.
Step two (b): Load Snort and the additional tools into a box, and sell the box as a complete solution, instead of just selling software.
It's been said before that there is no incentive to make OSS easy to use. Here (and elsewhere) is the proof. Make it hard to use. Release it. BUT, make the config tools easy to use, IF you pay for them.
I'm not slagging the guy, he's gotta eat. But it is another notch in the belt for those who are cynical about OSS and business.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
ACT is a company that creates only free software. They've been around since the late 90's, and I understand they have been in the black for years, perhaps since inception. They are a privately held company, and as far as I know, have no plans to ever do an IPO. Perhaps that's why they don't get much press (although RMS likes to use them as examples in his speeches).
Maybe not in up front dollars...But if any open source package gets "huge" or becomes a "killer app" then being one of the "core developers" will mean much on the old Resume. Ask Linus or some of the Apache folks.
In the medical field (and in some degrees education) it is considered a huge career boost to get "published" in a journal....Considering the amount of money a Dr. makes -- just getting a concept or research published does not make tons of cash -- but the future dollars he makes "because" he was published are very big!
P.S. -- I work for a big Fortune 500 company and Snort has been all the rage this year so far. (Last year it was Apache).....
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
Clearly you didn't read the article. The biggest difference between Sourcefire and most of the other crash and burn software companies (whether selling Free softwware or commercial software) was that Marty and friends have not spent money they didn't have. They ran the company out of Marty's house for a while, and when they finally did get offices they bought pre-furnished offices from a burnout at pennies on the dollar.
In fact, the cycle you describe is common in the commercial software world as well. I pay maintenance fees on several large commercial software packages that I have no intention of ever updating to the newest version. The version I have works fine, and the new version had "issues" in my environment. I pay the maintenance fees as insurance.
Microsoft has a large enough market, and enough clout that they can force their customers to upgrade, but most software companies don't have that kind of leverage.
If you're checking out snort for the first time, I highly recommend using Demarc PureSecure which is free as in beer (aka for personal use). It's by far the best front end for snort, and does host based checks as well.
:)
The screenshots are mouthwatering.