Linux and Philosophy

[Richard Esplin]

If companies only received revenue for support, then wouldn't the incentive be 
to build non-intuitive but useful software in order to increase the volume of 
support calls?

My epiphany came when I realized that this is the current open source business 
model.

Exercise for the reader: how would you adapt this business model to give 
companies an incentive to make their software easy to use, while still 
retaining its freedom and power?

Richard Esplin

On Saturday 16 July 2005 22:22, Doran Barton wrote:
<snip>
> I would suggest you use some of Eric Raymond's essays for source material.
> He goes on at length about the ethical issues of software development,
> business, etc. For example, Raymond argues the only real value in software
> is the support that comes along with it. He points out an obvious
> illustration of this: the price of a piece of software from a company that
> has gone out of business is very near to free. Think bargain/clearance bin.
>
<snip>
>
> Anyway- Eric Raymond says support is really where the money is anyway- so
> don't believe it when someone tells you a business model based on
> open-source software is a dead-end.
>
<snip>