The Grok

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?

What is open source and how did it originate?
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.

What's in it for me?
Open source software is of advantage to both the end user and developer community. Let us first examine the very obvious advantages to the end user community.

End Users
* The "free" factor of software.
* Availability of source code for modification.
* More technically sound software.
* Better response to customer suggestions.

Developers
* Good karma for distributing free software with source code.
* An entire online world willing to update and make your software better.
* No advertising and maintenance costs!
* Fun factor.

I'm a developer and I still don't find the above reasons compelling enough to make me develop open source software!
Unless you are college/school hacker, the robin hood factor is little reason for most ordinary developers to shift to open source. Thankfully, open source is a much more mature idea.

Most developers like to guard source code because they fear that competitors might use it to gain an unfair advantage. This is a serious fact which cannot be ignored in any field of innovation. Linux is a good example of an high quality implementation of a UNIX system. There have always been many wannabe OSes that have aimed to do the same but even with Linux's open source, it is only the popularity of Linux that exists. The positive aspect in open source for such people is the wider acceptance of quality software.

For independent programmers it provides an excellent medium to release good ideas even if their programs are of average quality. The vast technical expertise of the connected world will always support good ideas. Good programmers can contribute to the development of large and complex technical systems and programs, thereby increasing their experience, knowledge and collaboration abilities which are important in any professional job.

There is a also better interaction between the customer and developer, a better knowledge of the market and of course popular support. An open source project can be a good project for beginners who want to solve interesting problems of the computing world.

However, as any good programmer would tell you, the best, most useful and popular programs are the ones you would write to solve the problems of everyday computing life. Fetchmail is the best example of such a program which has become highly popular in the Unix community.

Sounds good, but can I make any money?
Contrary to popular belief, there is a lot of potential to make money in the open source economy. It is important to note that poorly designed and low quality software will never generate profits (unless you force people to buy it!). What are the possible methods of income?

* Selling the software+source+manual in a boxed package as a commercial product.
* Add on packages that make use of advanced technology (requiring resources of the programmer). Sendmail is a very good example of a software that utilizes this method.
* Paid customer support for software users.
* Cost added software/API manual.
* Paid customer requested custom software modification.
* Revenue from advertisements inside software. (many people get irritated!)
* Sponsorships from subject related companies. For eg. if you were to develop a distributed molecular modeller, you could find sponsorship money from NASA or other science foundations.

What I have listed are only few of the many possible ways of generating income from open source software. As you may have now realized, it is certainly possible to become a "Rich Robinhood" in the open source economy!

NOTE
There has been some controversy over the title of this article, namely the comparison with an open source programmer to Robinhood. While Robinhood "stole" from the rich and gave it to the poor, open source programmers don't steal!

Robinhood's quality of giving things to the needy, and of course, not working only for selfish desires, is what I was looking to compare.