In The Cathedral and the Bazaar, Eric Raymond outlines the tenets that distinguish successful open source software (OSS) development from proprietary software. Eric's paper put some definition around the previously unwritten and often fuzzy process of developing OSS. "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" has served the open source community well up to now; OSS has seen tremendous success especially in the server market. However, in the consumer space OSS has not been able to take majority leadership from the likes of Microsoft. Why has this been the case? I'd argue that it isn't a technology issue, but more of a marketing issue. To succeed in the consumer space, you need more than just good technology. Despite it not being mentioned once in "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" good marketing plays a significant role in successful open source software adoption.

OSS is characterized by bottom-up development. Typically, one or more developers decide to "scratch an itch" and develop something to solve a problem. Open source products usually don't start top down with a company deciding to use that model for a new product (although that may be changing). For this reason, OSS has always been very developer-centric. The OSS anthem, "The Cathedral and the Bazaar," was written by a professed hacker in a tone geared toward developers (not managers or executives).

Since the OSS community is largely driven by technical developers, it isn't surprising that the largest adopters up to now have been people in the IT community with a technical background. They generally "get it." Most techies don't need to be sold the benefits of OSS. In this case, word-of-mouth has been the primary marketing tactic and while slow, it has been effective.

The consumer market is different. Most end-users could care less about the way in which software is developed. In fact, OSS may seem unusual because they are used to paying for software (or using pirated software). The fundamental problem is that most OSS-based products have $0 going to marketing. Microsoft spends billions of dollars every year on marketing. They've established a well-known brand, you see their products on commercials, and they establish strategic partnerships that will help improve visibility in key markets. This has not been done for most consumer OSS products.

In the last few years, some industry giants such as IBM, Sun, and Novell have rallied behind OSS, largely in an attempt to thwart Microsoft. This is a step in the right direction, but they have a long way to go. IBM and Novell have helped get Linux more attention, but that is just one of many OSS applications. Take Firefox for example, which is developed through the Mozilla Foundation. Initially adoption of Firefox rose very quickly, but slowed down once the technical user market was saturated. Now it has about 10% market share and moving upward very slowly. I believe this is a common trend with most consumer OSS products. Initial take up is quick until the technical user community is saturated and then due to lack of exposure and significant marketing and distribution, growth slows nearly as quickly.

What's the solution? I believe there are no easy answers. The one simple answer would be to have OSS companies such as Red Hat, IBM, and Novell start investing more money in marketing. The big downside to this is that the OSS community, partly in thanks to Eric Raymond, has developed a culture where big company tactics such as marketing are frowned upon. To make it worth the investment, OSS companies would have to market their own OSS products, not just OSS in general. The OSS community might view these companies as "selling-out", taking undue credit, or attempting to become more Microsoft-like. For products like Firefox, the organization running the project has to get more serious about marketing its products, but with lack of a significant income stream to support those efforts, this may not be very feasible either.

The developer-centric, anti-Microsoft model OSS has fostered over the years has resulted in many innovative products, yet this same model may also be its biggest barrier to penetrating consumer markets. OSS products may surpass Microsoft's in terms of features and quality, but without a marketing vision, they may never be able to break through the consumer market glass ceiling.