When discussing open source, the question of “How does one make money?, ” naturally arises. There are a few different strategies for making money. One of the largest markets is in branding software and then marketing it as better than the rest. A good example of this is the many Linux vendors such as Red Hat, Caldera, Mandrake, etc. Because the code is open source, they can do what they want to make theirs the best distribution and then market it as such. This ties right in with bundling value-added components with the open source software to make it more appealing to consumers. One of the upcoming markets for open source software is to provide support. The creators of the software or a third party company sells support time or training. This solves one fault that has plagued open source software since its beginning, lack of support. By selling support, companies help themselves and help the open source concept. With the various marketing strategies in place generating revenue, open source is proving to be a concept that can exist and be beneficial to almost everybody (DiBona et al., 100).

[ Home | Project 1 | Project 2 | Project 3 | Resume | Links ]