Introduction
Open-source software can be sold and used commercially. It is a part of the software industry. The financial return on open-source software can also come from selling services, such as training and support, rather than the software itself. The use of dual-licensing provides an offer of the software under an open-source license but also under separate proprietary license terms. Customers can be attracted to a no-cost and open-source edition, then be part of an up-sell to a commercial enterprise edition.
Further, customers will learn of open-source software in a company's portfolio and offerings but generate business in other proprietary products and solutions, including commercial technical support contracts and services. Another possibility is offering open-source software in source code form only, while providing executable binaries to paying customers only. With permissive software, any company can distribute the package without the source or software freedoms.
Some companies provide the latest version available only to paying customers. Companies provide proprietary extensions, modules, plugins or add-ons to an open-source package. Independent developers often accept donations. SourceForge, for example, lets users donate money to hosted projects which have chosen to accept donations. The users of a particular software artefact may come together and pool money into a bounty for the implementation of a desired feature or functionality.
Other financial situations include partnerships with other companies. Sometimes a commercial version may be sold to finance the continued development of the free version.
Sell subscriptions for online accounts and server access. Combine desktop software with a service, software plus services.
Governments, companies or other non-governmental organizations may develop internally or hire a contractor for custom in-house modifications to software, then release that code under an open-source license.
Read more about this topic: Business Models For Open Source Software
Famous quotes containing the word introduction:
“For the introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state; since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions.”
—Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.)
“The role of the stepmother is the most difficult of all, because you can’t ever just be. You’re constantly being tested—by the children, the neighbors, your husband, the relatives, old friends who knew the children’s parents in their first marriage, and by yourself.”
—Anonymous Stepparent. Making It as a Stepparent, by Claire Berman, introduction (1980, repr. 1986)
“Such is oftenest the young man’s introduction to the forest, and the most original part of himself. He goes thither at first as a hunter and fisher, until at last, if he has the seeds of a better life in him, he distinguishes his proper objects, as a poet or naturalist it may be, and leaves the gun and fish-pole behind. The mass of men are still and always young in this respect.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)