A way some companies make money out of open source

Bottom line: keep control of your code, but release versions of it under an opensourc license.

• The Commercial Open Source Business Model | Dirk Riehle
  Commercial open source software projects are OSS projects that are owned by a single firm that derives a direct and significant revenue stream from the software. Commercial open source at first glance represents an economic paradox: How can a firm earn money if it is making its product available for free as open source? This paper presents the core properties of commercial open source business models and discusses how they work. Using a commercial open source approach, firms can get to market faster with a superior product at lower cost than possible for traditional competitors. The paper shows how these benefits accrue from an engaged and self-supporting user community. Lacking any prior comprehensive reference, this paper is based on an analysis of public statements by practitioners of commercial open source. It forges the various anecdotes into a coherent description of revenue generation strategies and relevant business functions.

   

  AKA “single-vendor commercial open source”

  (tags: opensource business strategy report 2009)