Making money from open source
March 5th, 2008 | by admin |Many people think open source is equal to free of price. They think it is impossible to make money from open source products. This is not true and this article shows how to make money from open source…
The focus with open source is => Services not licences
The open source revenue model is one based on a service revenue stream rather than a licence revenue stream. This fosters competition amongst vendors for any class of software. Most open source software is copyright, but released under licences which allow free re-distribution. It is this attribute which allows for the distinctive economic benefits that open source accrues. And it is this in turn which attracts a number of potential customers to consider using software which is sourced from smaller development houses. Customers who would have otherwise never considered your software.
Let’s also take a whirlwind look at the industry side of the open source world. We know there are around two hundred Linux (and BSD etc.) open source platform vendors globally. These are firms which pool together hundreds of applications, placed on top of an open source operating system, marketed through a number of channels and via a number of different business and non-business models. Strong competition is evident in this space.
And finally some mor direct hints:
Sell the Reference Manual,
Sell the Installer,
Sell “Enterprise” version,
Sell a subscription of the documentation,
Sell Hosting Services,
Sell A Book,
Sell Training,
Solicit Donations and much more!
