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Open source becomes paid software in 2009

Posted by Scott_Ruecker on · 5 comments
C|Net News; By Dave Rosenberg 		Mail this story
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One of the biggest misconceptions in software is that open source equals free. The early commercial open-source vendors like MySQL and JBoss were able to build decent businesses on top of a license/support-only business model, but over time we've seen that approach become difficult to grow beyond a certain threshold. I suspect that in 2009 it will start becoming clearer as to what you pay for and why you should. Redmonk analyst Michael Cote made the prediction that next year "it will be cool to pay for software" and I agree. It's one thing to consume open-source software and quite another to pay for it.

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Comments (5)

Scott_Ruecker Story submitter ·
Looks like someone's business isn't making as much money as he wants it too. Which means that we really should be paying for software whether we want too or not.

"it will be cool to pay for software"? is he on something? Poor little businessman isn't happy with his bottom line..
hkwint ·
Hmm, well, only reading the title reveals this man has no clue and I wonder if it's even worthwhile to read the article.
hkwint ·
Indeed, I don't get the hang of the article. 'Open source is not free' because you have to pay for the 'not-open' bits.

It's like complaining if I receive a car without tires for free I have to pay for the tires and therefore the car is not free. Flawed logic, can someone hand Prolog to this guy?
dinotrac ·
Companies pay for software every time they write their own. Nothing wrong with that.
Scott_Ruecker Story submitter ·
I completely agree Dino, I am just not going to pay for free software because this guy thinks I should. Just to make him happy? No way Jose.

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