[ Thanks to Mayank
for this link. ]
“Open source is slated as the new mode of economy for the
new age. But is it possible to make profits from free software? How
is it of advantage to large and small scale developers?“
“Open source is software which is freely redistributable and can
readily be evolved and modified to fit changing needs. The Free
Software Foundation founded by Richard M. Stallman supported a
great deal of open source development from the early 1980s. They
successfully released Emacs and GCC (Gnu C Compiler) which form the
core for all unix programmers. Excluding the actual presence of the
source code, the software license is the most important part of
open source software. There are many such licenses available and in
use. Although open source does not recommend any specific license,
FSF’s GPL (Gnu Public License) is the most popular and widely used.
Many people find that GPL has a slant towards non profit and has an
anti commercial nature.”
“GPL is not the end to all means. Many programmers in the open
source economy have opted for creating their own software license
which essentially follow the GPL but have some ideological
independence.”