Buying open source software

[Abhi]

Why are companies interested in successful open source software ? Any profit-making company would like to divulge as less code as possible ( normally ). When the whole code base is public, how do they benefit from it. Someone could actually fork it from there and build a better competitor than the commercial firm.

 

[phenomlab]

@Abhi nobody earns anything from open source software itself, but they can generate revenue by offering enterprise grade support for it. Red Hat for example have been doing this for years. If you publish your course as open source, anyone can fork that work and claim it as their own.

This depends on the license it is issued under.

 

[Abhi]

> @phenomlab nobody earns anything from open source software itself,

A donation, sponsors, branded wear and accessories etc ?

> @phenomlab Red Hat for example have been doing this for years.

️

> @phenomlab This depends on the license it is issued under.

Which license do you prefer ? Something that will not sink the original creator altogether.

 

[admin]

I do read in news that libre software management makes a deal with the open source management to acquire the brand name and associated decorations. We can always argue that someone is going to fork it. But a good leadership if lost can backlash the whole project.

 

[admin]

> @phenomlab can generate revenue by offering enterprise grade support for it.

That is an interesting way to make money.

 

[phenomlab]

> @admin But a good leadership if lost can backlash the whole project.

Not the case for LibreNMS who forked the community version of Observium out of spite because its founder was a egotistical and rude a**h*le