Making money from open source / free software

[cbbrowne-HInyCGIudOg at public.gmane.org]

> On Thu, Mar 18, 2004 at 08:11:32AM -0500, cbbrowne-HInyCGIudOg at public.gmane.org wrote:
> > > >Open source has nothing to do with "producing software at a lower cost."
> > > 
> > > I think it has a lot to do with reducing software development costs.
> > 
> > To the contrary, the need for additional communications in open source
> > projects seems likely to have a lot to do with _increasing_ software
> > development costs.
> 
> Not if you factor in free "beta testing" and free "PR", which are what
> Open Source represents essentially.  I think the cost of producing (ie.
> salary for programmers) is the same.

I don't see IBM spending _less_ money on advertising in the wake of
"open source" software.  

And the 'free beta testing' looks to be of really dubious value.  People
do 'free beta testing' if they are _really_ committed to the software,
and they likely would have done 'free beta testing' with proprietary
software had they been working with it.

Numerous companies released pieces of software that weren't ready for
prime time as "open source" under the assumption that there were hordes
of programmers with time on their hands drooling at the thought of doing
their beta testing for them; reality is otherwise...
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