TroubleShooters.com: Linux Log: The Natural Resource View of Open Source Profit

“Most explanations of “Open Source business models”
have been proposed as ways to subvert the laws of supply and
demand, which are based on scarcity. Most such models have failed
because of the flawed assumption that Open Source is a scarce
commodity, or can somehow be made scarce.

In fact Open Source more resembles an abundant, self renewing
natural resource. Imagine it as a fast growing weed. You don’t make
money by selling abundant weeds — you make money using them.

The one remaining question is how these abundant Open Source
resources renew themselves, when the programmers creating them are
not paid to do so (in most cases). The answer is that the
programmers create or contribute to Open Source projects because
they need the resulting functionalities more than they need the
time they spend coding those functionalities.”

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