Open Source is under exposed in the channel. That’s the word from TheVARGuy who lamented Friday that Open Source vendors were making little progress in the channel… or so it seems.

2009 was so promising, he writes: “when Synnex and Red Hat launched the Open Source Channel Alliance (OSCA) and Tech Data launched the Open Tech effort. The situation looked so darn promising, especially as open source ERP, CRM and groupware companies worked to promote their wares through the OSCA and Open Tech.”
But all have been quiet since, with OSCA and Open Tech appearing to have closed shop, or at least their Web presence. Red Hat has yet to even establish a dedicated partner-centric agenda during The Red Hat Summit is set for May 3-4 in Boston.
Further signs of stasis in the march to an open source channel, according to TheVARGuy came from Digium and Pentaho.
But other open-source vendors are active in the channel after all, he writes, they’re just quiet about it.
Open-Xchange, an alternative to Microsoft Exchange Server, VMware’s Zimbra open source e-mail client and SugarCRM are just a few of the high-profile vendors still charging hard in the reseller route to market, he writes. “Open Source companies just have to do a better job promoting their progress to the masses,” namely media sources like TheVARGuy and ChannelTechCenter.