How do linux developers make money?
Monday, May 2nd, 2011 at
19:37
It seems that everything linux is free and open source to everyone. So how do companies like Canonical Ltd (makers of Ubuntu) make their money to support what they are doing?
Tagged with: canonical ltd • Linux • money • Open Source
Filed under: Open Source
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Most of us develop for free..because we believe we can make programs better without corporate bureaucracy.
Can you imagine what killer music and books we would have of they were open source too?!?!?!?!
donations
Selling their expertise to those with minimum (or none) experience. It’s called support, the thing that you usually can’t get it for free.
Money comes from a couple of locations from what I understand.
Corporate sponsorship – Companies that use the software are inclined to spend money to continue improving the product. This may be direct investment, code development, or code donation (i.e. company X may have had their own version of a product and donates it to organization Y to integrate and own).
Support contracts – Companies that use the software may require support for the software. Open source companies may provide forums for typical users but some people require a more immediate or professional level of service.
Fund raising – Similar to any non-profit organization
Don’t forget, not everything Linux is free. Most are though.
They would probably make their money from fundraisers, donations, and sponsors. Other companines would sponsor them to fund their project, they could have fundraisers to gain money to further their project, and donations that anyone can give that most organizations have a link to on their website.