Forum Moderators: bakedjake
So I'm wondering if there's anyone out there whom has had any experience with this? I know you can make money on Open Source - Redhat and MySQL AB are great examples - But what I wanna know is; How? How can you profit from something you practicly give away for free?
I'd love to hear your opinions on it, but I'd also love to have some links and resources that I can present to my teacher.
Cheers! :)
- Wertigon
How? How can you profit from something you practicly give away for free?
2 Words Support & Modification/Customization
NS
I agree with NeedScripts' two...aaaah make that three words. Also, open source software does not necessarily equate to it being free of charge. It means the recipient is free to change the code and redistribute it either for a fee or for free -- his choice.
It costs next to nil to reproduce a copy of the program once it's written. Customer support is one of the biggest expenses for a software company. Most elect to charge for the product which in reality is to cover the support costs plus their overhead. In the open source world, many will give away the product and then charge for support knowing that a high percentage of users will need it because they aren't programmers or techies or are businesses that want stable support.
I've seen high school and college kids start up their own companies to fill gaps like doing themes for CMS'/forums and writing custom scripts in their free time. It sure beats working at a fast food chain for some spending money.
It is to improve the creation and propagation of tools and resources. A way to obtain optimal use of the workforce and avoid duplication of effort.
Of course, those tools and resources can do a whole lot of money, if used properly.
Hint: to get to the money don't look in the OSS process by itself; look where the parts who contribute to it are being benefited, where is time saved and how is beneficial for all the parts to avoid reinventing the wheel.
Open Source is indeed not about making money, but you gotta earn your living in some way, neh?
Now, all I gotta do is to dig up some links explaining the economics of Open Source...
Especially check out "Future of Cygnus Solutions," "Giving It Away: How Red Hat Software Stumbled Across a New Economic Model and Helped Improve an Industry," and "Open Source as a Business Strategy." Some of the information in the articles may be a bit dated, but the philosophy behind them is good.
