You Can Make Money with Open Source
blogs.hbr.org
You Can Make Money with Open Source
1–10 of 38 posts
Re: You Can Make Money with Open Source
#2I know this article is focused on the business level, but I'm finding this to be true on a personal level as well. Contributing to open source not only leads to personal improvement but it essentially creates a public portfolio of your work. This can lead to more exposure which in turn can lead to more opportunities (and better paid ones too).
Open Source might not yield immediate benefits (i.e a paycheck) like say freelancing, but it is an investment in your future.
Re: You Can Make Money with Open Source
#3I am just surprised that in 2013 we are still having this discussion.
There are several ways "to make money with OS"; Service-based models (like support), Dual-licensing models (think Qt, MySQL, etc), Community vs "Enterprise" packaging, Extensions to popular packages, Consulting, Platform ownership, etc etc etc. Why such big surprise?!?
Re: You Can Make Money with Open Source
#4I am just surprised that in 2013 we are still having this discussion. There are several ways "to make money with OS"; Service-based models (like support), Dual-licensing models (think Qt, MySQL, etc), Community vs "Enterprise" packaging, Extensions to popular packages, Consulting, Platform ownership, etc etc etc. Why such big surprise?!?
I don't think it's a huge surprise, I just think that there is a lack of understanding for a lot of people. Articles that may encourage more open source are always welcome in my books :)
Re: You Can Make Money with Open Source
#5[deleted]
Re: You Can Make Money with Open Source
#6Can you? yes.
But it's going to be very difficult.
Let's say you have a really popular open source project with an enterprise version (which pays your bills). Anybody can start up a competing app with similar features and either give it out for free or charge, making it more difficult for you to make money and stay in business.
The alternative is to have a service-based business. For one or two people, this isn't very scalable.
Re: You Can Make Money with Open Source
#7This story is a bit misleading. If you study the successful companies using open source as a business model you will find they all raised large amounts of venture capital. That was during the window when open source as a business was a brand new idea.
That window has now all but closed and it is exceedingly difficult to find examples of successful companies that bootstrapped their way to success running an open source business.
Re: You Can Make Money with Open Source
#8This story is a bit misleading. If you study the successful companies using open source as a business model you will find they all raised large amounts of venture capital. That was during the window when open source as a business was a brand new idea. That window has now all but closed and it is exceedingly difficult to find examples of successful companies that bootstrapped their way to success running an open sourc…
What about Cloudera?
Re: You Can Make Money with Open Source
#9This story is a bit misleading. If you study the successful companies using open source as a business model you will find they all raised large amounts of venture capital. That was during the window when open source as a business was a brand new idea. That window has now all but closed and it is exceedingly difficult to find examples of successful companies that bootstrapped their way to success running an open sourc…
Check out Enthought http://www.enthought.com/
They create some of the most used open source scientific computing software, and still manage to make money (also, a great place to work in, lots of really smart people)
While this model might not work for everywhere, its possible, it just takes more effort though.
Re: You Can Make Money with Open Source
#10This story is a bit misleading. If you study the successful companies using open source as a business model you will find they all raised large amounts of venture capital. That was during the window when open source as a business was a brand new idea. That window has now all but closed and it is exceedingly difficult to find examples of successful companies that bootstrapped their way to success running an open sourc…
What about Cloudera?
Cloudera is primarily a consulting company, as are most open-source companies.
There have been only 3 successful open source companies ever: MySQL, Jboss, and Redhat