How does Open Source Software Business model work?
Feb,14
at9:35 am
byadmin
How do the developers get paid if nobody buys the software, just get it free, and that too with source code? I can understand it about amateur software developers. But I recently heard that Sun is coming out with Open Source Unix this year. How will they profit from this? If not, how will they survive?
There are lots of different business models for open source. Sometimes there is a free version and then a paid version such as sugarCRM. Other times, if the company is small, they may be able to survive on just donations. They might also have corporate sponsors that keep them in business. Other times, they offer the product for free and then just charge for support. Also if the product is open source, they don't have to pay as much for developers because the community will upgrade and patch their products for a lot cheaper.
I don't know about SUN, but I think their operating system Sun Solaris is already available for free, not quite sure if they are open source though.
There are lots of different business models for open source. Sometimes there is a free version and then a paid version such as sugarCRM. Other times, if the company is small, they may be able to survive on just donations. They might also have corporate sponsors that keep them in business. Other times, they offer the product for free and then just charge for support. Also if the product is open source, they don't have to pay as much for developers because the community will upgrade and patch their products for a lot cheaper.
I don't know about SUN, but I think their operating system Sun Solaris is already available for free, not quite sure if they are open source though.
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