Making money from open source / free software

[cbbrowne-HInyCGIudOg at public.gmane.org]

> That is a decent article, but the following does not ring
> universally true to me:
> "Open source is always a way of saving money, because
> you can produce software at a lower cost," Marten Mickos,
> CEO of MySQL, told the audience.

You're quite right.

Open source has nothing to do with "producing software at a lower cost."

It is quite likely that it is _more costly_ to produce "open source"
software.  

- It is mandatory that you start from scratch; you can't have the
  "savings" of using proprietary software.  

- And with "open source" software, you cannot assume that you will be
  able to recoup your costs by selling licenses.

The savings of cost comes in when it allows you to use software that
_someone else_ produced and not be expected to pay for it.  But that is
not a savings associated with _producing_ the software.
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