ZDNet UK: Open Source: Supply and Demand

"This is part four in a four-part series of articles that is roughly a response to 'The Magic Cauldron,' the seminal work on open-source economics written by Eric Raymond. This instalment discusses some of Raymond's proposals relating to the manner in which developers will earn money in an open-source economy.

"'Lowering the cost of a good tends to increase, rather than decrease, total investment in the infrastructure that sustains it. When the price of cars goes down, the demand for auto mechanics goes up--which is why even those 5 percent of programmers now compensated by sale-value would be unlikely to suffer in an open-source world...'"

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• ZDNet: Why Choose Open Source?(May 18, 2004)
• ZDNet: Proprietary Drives the Software Economy(May 12, 2004)
• ZDNet: Open Source Radicals--Eat Cake(Mar 03, 2004)