Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on December 10, 2002 07:23 AM
> Most of the closed software is made not by corporations, but by small independent companies. Almost no free software is made by corporations.
Large corporations are bureaucratic structures designed to make money for shareholders in the short to medium term. As such, they tend not to be a primary source of radical new approaches, and long-term thinking.
And Open Source development is a new approach that requires long-term thinking in order to see the benefits.
Still, it's not true that corporations have not been involved in Open Source development. IBM invested a billion (billion!!!) dollars into Linux development and promotion. A number of corporations are involved in supporting Apache. Sun paid over 70 $million for Star Division, then Open Sourced StarOffice. And AOL has invested over 50 $million to support the development of Mozilla.
I expect more corporations to get involved as the benefits become clearer.
> It is instead made by groups of people that make no money, or minimal money, ie not enough to live on, by supporting the products.
You seem to have the wrong expectations when it comes to Open Source software. The purpose of OSS is not to make oodles of money for its developers, but to save oddles of money (and provide freedom) for its users (who are also the developers).
To understand Open Source software, you should think in terms of CO-OPs and Credit Unions. Farmers don't invest in a CO-OP in order to make the CO-OP rich, but to provide a better deal for it's members, the farmers. And employees don't invest in a Credit Union in order to make the Credit Union rich, but to provide a better deal for its members, the employees. Likewise, the main beneficiaries of OSS are its users, many of whom contribute some a small part to the overall development.
But that's not to say that the only way to make money on OSS is as a user. Just as there are companies that make money by selling services (accounting, armoured transport, etc.) for Credit Unions, there are many companies, like IBM and Red Hat, who make money selling hardware or services for Open Source software.
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Re:Way to miss the point!
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on December 10, 2002 07:23 AMLarge corporations are bureaucratic structures designed to make money for shareholders in the short to medium term. As such, they tend not to be a primary source of radical new approaches, and long-term thinking.
And Open Source development is a new approach that requires long-term thinking in order to see the benefits.
Still, it's not true that corporations have not been involved in Open Source development. IBM invested a billion (billion!!!) dollars into Linux development and promotion. A number of corporations are involved in supporting Apache. Sun paid over 70 $million for Star Division, then Open Sourced StarOffice. And AOL has invested over 50 $million to support the development of Mozilla.
I expect more corporations to get involved as the benefits become clearer.
> It is instead made by groups of people that make no money, or minimal money, ie not enough to live on, by supporting the products.
You seem to have the wrong expectations when it comes to Open Source software. The purpose of OSS is not to make oodles of money for its developers, but to save oddles of money (and provide freedom) for its users (who are also the developers).
To understand Open Source software, you should think in terms of CO-OPs and Credit Unions. Farmers don't invest in a CO-OP in order to make the CO-OP rich, but to provide a better deal for it's members, the farmers. And employees don't invest in a Credit Union in order to make the Credit Union rich, but to provide a better deal for its members, the employees. Likewise, the main beneficiaries of OSS are its users, many of whom contribute some a small part to the overall development.
But that's not to say that the only way to make money on OSS is as a user. Just as there are companies that make money by selling services (accounting, armoured transport, etc.) for Credit Unions, there are many companies, like IBM and Red Hat, who make money selling hardware or services for Open Source software.
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