Linux World / Network World 2006

[Christopher Browne]

On 10/19/05, CLIFFORD ILKAY <clifford_ilkay-biY6FKoJMRdBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On October 19, 2005 20:08, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
> [snip]
> > Yes, there should be a brief overview of each of the major
> > distributions, each preferably given by a user of it, describing
> > particular strengths and focus. But these should not come until
> > AFTER addressing the basic questions:
> >
> > - What is a distribution?
> > - Who can make one and how would they do it?
> > - Why would anyone make a new one when there are already so many
> > good ones out there?
> > - Why are some distributions free and some sold commercially?
> > - What's the difference between Fedora and RedHat? Between Debian
> > and Ubuntu?
> > - Can you mix free and non-free software?
> > - What are the factors to consider when choosing one to use?
>
> How can people make money from Open Source? I hear this question all
> the time from customers. They are used to paying for software and
> figure that if a given software package is free, its author did not
> believe it was good enough to sell.

And remember that one of the answers is...

"By virtue of the money I am SAVING on licensing fees."

The company I work for spends a fair bit supporting open source
software, not on the basis that they will MAKE MONEY, but rather on
the basis that they will SAVE MONEY.

In principle, it might be plausible that we could sell some the
software and "make money," but reality is that we haven't got the
resources in house to do the things needed to do so, such as:
 - A legal department oriented to writing EULAs
 - A sales department oriented to selling software licenses

If an enterprise hasn't got an existing business group that sells
software licenses, then getting into "making money" from selling
software is pretty dubious.

OSS means you don't have to sell it to profit from it.
--
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