Often I used to talk about ubuntu with my friends and other windows users (because i really love to spread it) first thing i used to mention is “Its an open source software and you can get it free”. After hearing this most of them reply me with the two questions one is “what is mean by open source?” and second is “how they will make money by spreading their software freely?”. Yes i know most of the us were puzzled with these things. Here is a view about open source.
What is open source?
From the name itself you can guess source is open that is all of us have rights to alter the source code (program written to build the software) of the software also we can spread it to any number of persons according to our wish. There is no copy rights problem.
To understand better just read this example
Consider corporate companies. To develop a software first they will form a team with few skilled members from their company and those members will work on the project for a certain period of time after finishing the software they will deliver it to the end user. And user have to buy the software for some amount of money. Remember for this company have to pay for the members those who are working in the development (I think most you know the pay of IT people).
On the other hand consider an open source software project. A company or a person will give the idea or core of the source code then lot of people around the world will work on it, to develop the software. Just imagine how many skilled workers will be involved in that software development the best thing from the contributors will be selected and delivered to the users. Since this involves vast number of people software can be developed within short period of time. Here community members themselves provide free research and development by contributing new solutions, features, and ideas. Interesting thing is companies no need to pay a single rupee for those who involved in the development of the software. So why can’t they provide you the free software?
Next How they will make money?
It is true that a company giving open source software will not make money directly from product which is given freely to us. But they will generate revenue by providing services like systems integration, supports, tutorials etc.
For example consider ubuntu(canonical)
I think most of us used to visit shipit.ubuntu.com instead of that visit shop.canonical.com and shop.ubuntu.com there you can understand how they are making money.
Try to use more open source softwares…….
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