Professional open-source is an open source software business model where an open source software vendor generates revenue from paid professional services, maintenance and support provided along with the software. Some open source software vendors also provide commercial licenses of open source software or customer specific versions of open source software to customers .[1]
[edit] History
As open-source software began to become popular in the 1990s with the introduction of Linux, there was a growing stigma that such a package could not be trusted as stable or supported.[citation needed] As a consequence, larger businesses would often choose commercially distributed software over a product that was released under an open-source license. However, there has been much growth in the number of professional open-source companies - made popular by companies like Liferay, Inc., OpenSearchServer, Red Hat, MySQL AB, and JBoss. The business model of these companies tries "to offer open-source software with a free license, while using professional services, maintenance and support for these products to derive revenue."[2]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Richard T. Watson, Donald Wynn and Marie-Claude Boudreau (September 2005). "JBoss: the evolution of professional open source software". MIS Quarterly Executive Vol. 4 No. 3.
- ^ Montalbano, Elizabeth (February 16, 2006). "OSBC: Professional open source grows up". InfoWorld.
[edit] External links
