Open Source profits

14 Feb 2006

More and more, big companies are becoming major contributors to open source projects and sometimes buying the companies behind them. What’s the profit motive here? Infoworld has two thoughts.

Developers find it fast and easy to use open-source software because they can download it for free without going through a procurement process, he said. “Then, during deployment, if they want to upgrade to a system that’s faster or has better security, they can do that by buying Oracle’s for-purchase products,” Ellison said.

Other big vendors are also offering free and open-source products to strengthen their hands at the low end of the market and to build a bigger developer base.

Via Alexander Muse.

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