Re: Making money on open source, if not by selling _support_, then

[Justin Gombos <rpbkbq.xax.gld@uluv.kbq>]

On 2006-04-13, Larry Kilgallen <Kilgallen@SpamCop.net> wrote:
> In article <739b0$443e4f69$45491254$22018@KNOLOGY.NET>, "Marc A. Criley" <mcNOSPAM@mckae.com> writes:
>
>> And this occurs in the proprietary software world as well.  On two
>> instances in my career a customer pays a vendor to modify their
>> product in a certain way.  The vendor continues to own the product
>> in whole, the customer simply now gets a release that does what
>> they need--
>
> and gets assurance that the modifications will continue in the
> product line.  This is a major improvement to the mainframe model
> where customers get source to the product but will have to
> re-integrate local changes into successive versions of the product.

You get no such assurance with closed proprietary software because you
are at the mercy of the vendor to provide this (and remain in
business).  This risk evaporates when you're working with open source,
as there is always the option of hiring a contractor (which has the
added benefit of keeping the cost a competitive market rate rather
than a monopolizing inflated rate).

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