“Companies trying to jump on the open-source movement are coming
up with a variety of incentives to woo programmers, including
creating projects to prove that they aren’t just “parasites”
exploiting the programmers.”
“In the open-source method, many programmers contribute to
software products, and new companies built on those efforts are
cropping up nearly every day. This unhindered sharing of
programming code stands in contrast to the more common software
development method in which a company writes its own software and
jealously guards the product.”
“Companies benefiting from open-source efforts go to great
pains to avoid acquiring the dreaded label of “parasite”–a company
that exploits the work of open-source programmers without “giving
back to the community.” Often, those efforts include
contributing to the programming effort, as in the case of Red Hat
and most other versions of the Linux operating system.”