How can you make money if it’s free? (Profit models of Free Open Source)

Posted on March 23rd, 2006 by Chris.
Categories: Chris, General/Misc..

A while back Gas wrote an article that criticized open source software as not offering the necessary incentives to drive people to develop for deaf, blind, grandma, and other types of non-programmers who use computers. (In response to this article I wrote before that).

While some might criticize Tim’s post as MS fanboying, I think he made a very valid point that would apply to socialists and other anti-capitalists as well: You can’t just give it away. The point he made was simple: that you need a profit motive to develop good software.

The point I would like to make here is equally simple, in the hopes of explaining to the uninitiated how Red Hat and MySQL can make a profit off of a free product.

(more…)

2 comments.

FOSS and the Handicapped (Part 2)

Posted on March 23rd, 2006 by Tim.
Categories: General/Misc..

After writing an article about the economics of open source, I keep finding random commentary that agrees with the point I was making. This time it was a post at Rick Schaut’s blog that was linked to by Raymond Chen.

3 comments.

What I’m reading 9

Posted on March 21st, 2006 by Chris.
Categories: Chris, General/Misc..

  1. Cheng sent this: Spectacle without sight of the ball
  2. This Essay Breaks the Law (Sorry if this goes away, I’ll try and find a cache.)
  3. Yet another DIGG story: In what language do deaf people think?
  4. Solar - It’s finally coming?
  5. Finally one not blatantly ripped off from digg! http://pollkatz.homestead.com/ (Be sure to check out http://pollkatz.homestead.com/files/NEWBUSHINDEX_28670_image001.gif)
  6. Operation Clambake presents
  7. You fire at the zombie for 5 damage. They drop to 35 HP.
  8. Oops, wrong paste. I mean New Business Blooms in Iraq: Terror Insurance

0 comments.

FOSS and the handicapped

Posted on March 19th, 2006 by Tim.
Categories: General/Misc., Programming, Tim.

A few weeks ago I wrote this article about the economics of open source and how it affects the types of software written. Apparently I’m not the only one to have noticed.

2 comments.

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