Linux Journal: Jabber Asks the Tough Question

"There's a larger context here. Traditional open-source companies like VA Linux, Caldera and CollabNet are starting to sell closed-source products as a matter of business strategy. They are all also survivors of a dot-com boom and crash that invites us to rethink the overfunded assumptions we had about making money with Linux while the sun shined. "How do you make money with open source?" is still a wide-open question.

The question here isn't just about companies. It's about individual programmers who contribute to helping open-source projects like Jabber make it. Should they get rewarded financially for their otherwise voluntary efforts, above and beyond the systems (such as they are) that we have today? How?

Here's another way of asking the question. What are the ways open-source developers can scratch a customer's itch? And in doing so, what can open-source developers bring to the larger bazaar we call a marketplace? I think it's a lot, and we've barely started."

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