Why Open Source Collaboration Is More Important Than Ever

For more than 30 years, SUSE has championed the open source values of flexibility, choice and freedom. While open source platforms like Linux continue to provide value, they’re also facing challenges like open source providers move towards more restrictive roadmaps. 

To keep the open source spirit alive, collaboration is more essential than ever for open source communities — so SUSE is taking a stand.

Collaboration fuels the open source ecosystem

 Collaboration is essential to the open source ecosystem. The entire open source community thrives on teamwork, which gives the ecosystem its unique advantages, such as:

• Accessibility: Because of collaboration, open source development has a low barrier to entry; anyone can research the source code and see how something was built. Open source software is freely available, making it accessible to organizations that otherwise may not have had the resources or tools necessary to accomplish their tasks. 
• Creativity: The collaboration involved in open source code breaks down silos, encourages diverse perspectives and sparks new ideas and open discussions. 
• Freedom of choice in solutions: Linux and other open source systems are largely platform-agnostic. The easy integration of platform-agnostic open source code significantly reduces the risk of vendor lock-in, allowing collaborators to tailor solutions to their specific needs without being constrained by proprietary limitations. However, it’s important to note that while open source reduces the prevalence of vendor lock-in, it doesn’t completely eliminate it. Some open source providers implement practices that can lead to vendor lock-in, which underscores the importance of choosing a partner that upholds true open source values.
• Scalability: When developers can collaborate with others, like in open source software, they can scale their projects quickly. They can build on what others have already done, find answers they need, get feedback and learn tips and tricks to write more code.  

Without a healthy open source community, these advantages quickly disappear, leaving enterprises to choose from very few and often restrictive vendors.  

Threats to open source collaboration

 One of the major threats that open source collaboration faces is proprietary tools. Many providers are adopting models that resemble proprietary software. When providers start hiding code behind expensive licenses, the result is that smaller organizations may not be able to afford the fees. 

When companies have to pay for proprietary tools, companies may be forced to migrate to a new platform, pushed into vendor lock-in with restrictive agreements or stuck with technological roadmaps that don’t align with their goals. Many of the proprietary tools were built on foundations using open source code and input from the community, so when code is made proprietary, it erodes morale in the community and is expressly against open source values, like flexibility and freedom of choice. 

Another major threat is vendor lock-in. Some open source providers have arbitrary roadmaps that aren’t adapting to industry trends. Their plans may not align with your business goals. If you are trying to innovate with new product ideas, their lack of flexibility may hinder your creativity. Vendor lock-in also leaves you completely dependent on one provider: if they experience disruptions or hit end of life, your business continuity suffers. Other open source providers, like SUSE, are committed to flexibility so you are never surprised by an EOL or forced to migrate prematurely. 

Because of these challenges, open source collaboration is becoming more important than ever. These challenges threaten long-term damage to the open source community and can lead to stifled innovation and expensive licensures across the industry. It’s increasingly important to address these issues to keep open source values alive. 

SUSE’s commitment to collaboration and choice

Open source collaboration is more important than ever, and SUSE is committed to encouraging that collaboration. Open source is in our DNA. Our Open Source Policy highlights our promise to be transparent with the code we develop and publish. We keep our communities’ collaboration healthy with rules like contributing modifications to upstream as early as possible, respecting governance models and contribution policies and encouraging non-code contributions like reporting bugs, helping users and discussing development. Our rules help prevent contributor burnout and conflict, avoid code privatization and resolve security vulnerabilities. 

We put our values into action with every product we offer. SUSE solutions make open source adoption easier for enterprises while safeguarding customer freedom and choice. For example, SUSE Multi-Linux Support offers a no-migration alternative for companies that would otherwise be stuck with unsupported CentOS or RHEL 7. 

SUSE Multi-Linux Support allows you to choose whether to maintain your current infrastructure with vendor choice or to modernize with an ecosystem committed to preserving choice. Another example of our commitment to long-term collaboration and innovation is SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. With up to 19 years of support per version, the longest in the enterprise Linux industry, and ready for uninterrupted operation, it empowers organizations to rely on open source solutions for their critical workloads while benefiting from robust enterprise-level support. 

As a trusted partner in the open space community, we recognize the value of open source and extend those values to everyone that works with us. By partnering with SUSE, you are supporting the same values we do: flexibility, collaboration, transparency, innovation and integrity. To learn more about how to avoid restrictive vendors and create a path of innovation, download our white paper, “Break Free from Vendor Lock-In and Reclaim Your IT Roadmap.”