Succeeding with Open Source

The Challenge of the Whole Product

In Crossing the Chasm,^[1] Geoffrey Moore identified three types of technology users: early adopters, pragmatists, and late adopters. In later works, he further elaborated his model to identify six types of technology users. For our purposes, we can group them into two types of users: early adopters and pragmatists. Early adopters are comfortable using “unfinished” products, whereas pragmatists prefer to wait for the “whole”—or mature—product. Up to now, open source software has been the province of early adopters; today, however, pragmatists are seriously considering open source solutions.

^[1] Moore, Geoffrey, Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Technology Products to Mainstream Customers, HarperBusiness, ...