1. Enterprise-Grade Support
If your company uses open source software in mission critical areas then you’ll probably need someone to provide support when the software doesn’t work as expected.
With proprietary software, the availability of support is a given, but when you download and run an open source project you may have to rely on the help and support of the project’s developer community. That help may arrive, but then again it may not: Community support comes with no service-level guarantee and a 24×7 telephone support line is not provided.
Third-party companies offer support for some open source software on a commercial basis, but Gordon Haff, a senior manager at Red Hat, says, companies like Red Hat that sponsor and productize open source projects are in a better position to provide you with support than these third-party companies.