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GreenDance
October 15th, 2009, 11:52 AM
I would like to get involved with software development, lots of people like free software, but one thing that is bothering me is, is there any profit available in open source free software? is it possible to make enough money for basic living, (putting food on the table, paying the rent, gas and electric).

Thank You.

V for Vincent
October 15th, 2009, 12:10 PM
Kind of depends. Obviously, if you start working on a small project on your own, no. But companies like Canonical, Mozilla, Google or Novell do have full-time employees. Their revenue is based on support or advertising and such.

benj1
October 15th, 2009, 12:14 PM
well there a few one man shops managing to scrape a living, redhat, sun etc

you generally wont be able to make money just from software sales, although there isn't any reason why you can't.

most businesses are based on support for an open source app, either technical support or through being commissioned to add features someone in particular needs, if you are the author of the software you are in a prime position to take advantage of these markets.
i suppose you could include companies that use open source as a USP so you could include computer retailers such as zareason or system 76 or websites such as google.

then there are those companies that use linux to cut costs or for competitive advantage but dont necessarily contribute back ie amazon

so to answer your question, yes

earthpigg
October 15th, 2009, 12:17 PM
i youtube searched 'open source make money'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSow9v93jH0


also, consider the plethera of Free Software Client Side and Proprietary Software Server Side stuff.... the most basic example is a google search. right click -> view page source. there is the 'source code' on the client side.

earthpigg
October 15th, 2009, 12:18 PM
and you know how Mozilla makes its money, right?

notice that the default search engine on the upper right is google? bingo.

NoaHall
October 15th, 2009, 12:27 PM
Isn't it weird how English speaking south Africans sound like Australians?

Anyway, money is made by people submitting money. Mainly big companies. And money from support for the companies.

HNS-I
October 15th, 2009, 12:33 PM
I think your best bet on making money in os is working at a company that makes heavy use of os applications and are interested in bringing the applications to a higher level. Your purpose would be to work on the application and on the way submit patches to the main branch.

matthew.ball
October 15th, 2009, 12:53 PM
Isn't it weird how English speaking south Africans sound like Australians?
It's closer to a New Zealand accent, but still pretty far off.