Re: They've noticed that weird phenomenon, "free open source"!

On 08/02/13 11:34, Robin Sheat wrote:
> Kathinka schreef op vr 08-02-2013 om 10:47 [+1300]:
>> I'm wondering, will Silverstripe be able to sell its product all
>> locked up and untouchable like a MS product?  Or does open source have
>> to stay alive even when someone builds and sells a packaged product
>> using it?
>>
> It's an open source product, and for a job the size of what they've got,
> you're never selling them a boxed product anyway. You're selling them
> the service of getting their content into it, developing customisations
> (which tend to be released to everyone when complete), maintaining it,
> training, and so forth. It's 100% compatible with how free software is
> supposed to work. I know, because that's what I do all day with Koha :)
>
> Robin.


I like this model. It means software vendors can focus on making things 
work rather than making things not work unless you've paid for a 
licence. :)  I can't help thinking that user contributions (code, 
debugging time, P2P support, etc.) must be incredibly valuable to a 
commercial open-source venture as well.

I sometimes struggle when people ask about how open source developers 
make money, so it's good to have some concrete examples like these to 
give them. :)

I suppose the exact licence will dictate what you can do in terms of 
selling a derived packaged product.  I'm not aware of any problem with 
asking for money for GPL-ed code, as long as the source is indeed open.

Chris

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