Under the Hood: Open Source Business Models in Context
by Stephen Walli, VP, Open Source Development Strategy
Presented April 13, 2005 at the USENIX Annual Technical Conference 2005
People debate regularly about whether or not open source software is “good for business,” and how one makes money on something given away “for free.” They raise concerns over the commoditization effects and portray a gloomy future where open source software will “eat its way” up a stack of functionality until software is valueless.
This talk looks at historical open source companies, then steps back to look under the hood at a broader business context for the dynamics at work to provide a business model for open source software. Part of the story behind Microsoft´s community projects will be told along the way.