Abstract: Do Open Source Developers Respond to Competition? The Case Study

Abstract

Do Open Source Developers Respond to Competition? The Case Study

This paper traces the history of , the open source typesetting program. was an early and very successful open source project that imposed its standards in a particularly competitive environment and inspired many advances in the typesetting industry. Developed over three decades, came into competition with a variety of open source and proprietary alternatives. I argue from this case study that open source developers derive direct and indirect network externalities from the use of their software by others and must therefore consider non-developers' needs to make their software more attractive to a broader audience and more competitive with proprietary alternatives. Keywords: Open source, typesetting, network externalities.