Hyperic HQ, a platform for managing web infrastructure, was released under an open source license this summer. With 15,000 downloads in two months, the move is already helping improve software quality in unexpected ways. Hyperic CEO Javier Soltero talks about moving his product from a perpetual commercial license to the GPL plus subscription-only proprietary extensions for enterprises. He outlines the two exceptions in HQ's GPL code, competing with Microsoft and other proprietary and open source software, how product roadmaps and bug lists are revealed, software as a service, venture funding and how open source factored into it, and software release rhythms.
Javier Soltero is co-founder and chief executive officer of Hyperic. Prior to founding Hyperic, he was chief architect at Covalent Technologies, where he led the design and implementation of multiple enterprise products. Soltero also held senior engineering positions at Netscape, where he participated in the design development of e-commerce and Internet infrastructure suits. Over the last eight years, Soltero has been actively involved in various open source communities as a user and contributor. Soltero is originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico and is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University.
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