Open-source companies see profit aplenty

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The article answers your question.

You asked:
How can someone make money from free software?

As the article says, they sell it.

To keep the fanciers of Mr. Stallman's ideas happy they make things a bit more complicated, like having a variety of licenses or piling proprietary atop free, but they've recognized the main lesson of the dot-com bust: you can't make money giving away your primary product.

And then there are the companies like IBM who can use free software as a lagniappe, a toss-in because they're making so much on hardware and consulting fees that they don't need to get paid for part of what they supply.

Yes, the picture is getting clearer. I'm not sure how much longer people who believe in contributing free labor are going to be able to keep from realizing that, much as they might disagree with Mr. Stallman's belief that there's a moral imperative to reduce software jobs and salaries, they're acting in line with his views, like lemmings marching to the cliff.

Posted by: Anton Philidor   Posted on: 05/20/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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