LinuxWorld: Desktop Linux: ‘By the Users, For the Users…’

“The business world has never seen anything like the Linux
ecosystem before. Many of us barely have our heads around the
competitive landscape of the proprietary software publishing
business with its near-zero cost to produce additional copies,
complex licensing terms, huge gross margins, often changing pricing
strategy, and a development strategy that varies based on market
power as much as user needs. The software business is certainly not
your father’s Chevrolet. Then Linux and Open Source Software (OSS)
come along and drop a bomb on an already complex competitive arena
by adding huge wrinkles through openness on the development side
and by tossing out many of proprietary software’s use limitations
and its high price. These factors further distance the OSS
ecosystem from traditional business models and push it toward being
a social phenomenon.

“Within the context of the business and social phenomenon that
is OSS, this article discusses why there exists a natural niche for
a non-profit member organization to be front and center in the move
to OSS on the Desktop…”

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