Now that we've discussed Open Source in a nutshell, you may be wondering "How do the authors of open source softwares make money?!"
Well, that is a very good question. That was exactly the question that I asked when I first heard of it, too. Actually, it maybe hard to believe but sometimes open source softwares are able to generate more money than even proprietary ones! Following are the major ways how they do so -:
1) Paid Support - Not all, but some (infact, many) open source softwares offer paid support. They offer instant support (via Live chat, e-mail, mailing list etc) to those users who buy various support packages. Many open source coders are able to generate enough revenue this way (e.g. RedHat)
2) Paid CDs and/or DVDs - Open source softwares are available to be downloaded from the Internet for free but some open source softwares are available through CDs, which you'd have to buy. CDs are shipped to user's address when he orders.
3) Marketing - Now this is a very important point. The coders can upload Ads (of CPA networks, PPC campaigns, Traffic Exchange etc) on their product's website(s) and the respective companies whose ads they display, pay them for it.
4) Donations - Yes, donations. Donations are also extremely important and effective way for the coders to earn money. When their software gets famous, many people donate them so that the project may not be closed due to financial reasons. Like, recently the world famous free encyclopedia was able to generate more than 5 million US dollars in just few months, only by donations! (Wikipedia's webscript in PHP & javascript is open source, too.)
Well, that is a very good question. That was exactly the question that I asked when I first heard of it, too. Actually, it maybe hard to believe but sometimes open source softwares are able to generate more money than even proprietary ones! Following are the major ways how they do so -:
1) Paid Support - Not all, but some (infact, many) open source softwares offer paid support. They offer instant support (via Live chat, e-mail, mailing list etc) to those users who buy various support packages. Many open source coders are able to generate enough revenue this way (e.g. RedHat)
2) Paid CDs and/or DVDs - Open source softwares are available to be downloaded from the Internet for free but some open source softwares are available through CDs, which you'd have to buy. CDs are shipped to user's address when he orders.
3) Marketing - Now this is a very important point. The coders can upload Ads (of CPA networks, PPC campaigns, Traffic Exchange etc) on their product's website(s) and the respective companies whose ads they display, pay them for it.
4) Donations - Yes, donations. Donations are also extremely important and effective way for the coders to earn money. When their software gets famous, many people donate them so that the project may not be closed due to financial reasons. Like, recently the world famous free encyclopedia was able to generate more than 5 million US dollars in just few months, only by donations! (Wikipedia's webscript in PHP & javascript is open source, too.)
5) Companies just sell there Open source software.
There is a misconception with people, that open source means fully cost free software...
But there exist both types in market.
For instance red hat has both free(fedore project) and non-free linux version.
Of course latter has some benefits over former.