Toolkit

Story: Open source projects: Why it pays to keep quiet

Posted by: Anonymous (Saturday 26 November 2005, 2:14 PM)

"One side people say it is free.... what kind of free? If it is completely free then how can a developer earn money?"

The phrase among the Open Source supporters is, "Free as in beer, free as in speech".

Open Source software is free as in beer, in that you can get the program without paying for a licence.

It is free as in speech, in that you are free to modify the program to better meet your needs, as you get the source code.

Developers who are in it to make money are going to try to earn that money on support, rather than licencing. You need the Open Source accounting program to handle credit cards in its Accounts Payable module? Hire a programmer, and donate the code he/she writes back to the project. You don't have the in-house skills to handle user application support? Outsource it.

Some development teams may include programmers hired by users, hobby programmers, and those seeking to earn their money in the support market - a mixture of corporate representation and individuals. In all cases, they use the "ten programmers go to the table, each contributes one hour of work and leaves with 10 hours of work" model.