Why ubuntu is free of charge ? And how those people who buid it survive ?

[Trinity33]

everything cost something so i dont understand why ubuntu is free?

and those people who build ubuntu how do they survive doing things for nothing ?

shouldn't ubuntu cost some small amount of money ? i mean lucid for example is really very good piece of OS many things in it are a way better than in win 7 and it doesnt cost any money and im very curious why ?

all this compiz etc who make it ? are those people normal? why dont they charge ??

i use ubuntu for about year and im very very impressed to be honest 2 years ago i thought linux is just for people who do programming and now i know its for everyone.

[ronnielsen1]

http://www.ubuntu.com/how-can-it-be-free


It's no wonder our users ask how all this can be free. The answer is simple.

1. It's open source.
Everybody's doing it – from IBM to Google, Firefox to Wikipedia – some of today's best software is based on open-source technologies. Shared code, shared efforts, shared principles. No cost.



Here's a video of Linus explaining it
http://foss-boss.blogspot.com/2008/12/linus-explains-how-linux-started.html

[ronnielsen1]

Ubuntu makes money from selling services, support and probably advertising

[howefield]

There are a few threads on this topic elsewhere in the forum, some containing some links which may help answer your question.

Have a search for them, eg

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1542866

[eriktheblu]

Money is a good metric of value, but not the only metric.

If I do my own landscaping, I'm not getting any money. I do however get a nice looking yard. It also (sometimes) inspires my neighbors to maintain their yards. When I maintain my yard, my neighbor has a more pleasant view and vice-versa. Beyond the aesthetic value, the value of my property and my neighbors property increases.

Individuals who contribute often just want software to work better. The end application is the value they gain. Sometimes the only way to get a product you want is to build it yourself.

Some firms hire developers to improve access to their product. Google Chrome is a good example of this.

Canonical (the company that funds Ubuntu) sells professional support to individuals and organizations. They collect a portion of the sales from the Ubuntu One Music Store. In the next release, software will likely be sold through the Ubuntu Software Center; Canonical will of course collect a portion of that.

[Zorgoth]

Canonical makes some money by selling support. They have a revenue of about 30 million dollars a year. This is nowhere near enough to maintain Ubuntu under a closed source model, but in the open source model, Ubuntu's code comes from a lot of distinct projects; about 20-30% of open source code in contributed by individual developers volunteering to develop a cool idea, patch a bug, or what have you, and the rest is contributions from companies like Google, Red Hat, Novell, IBM, etc. Why do all these companies contribute code? For the same reason that individuals do - to make the software better so that they and all of its other users can be more productive.

[Spice Weasel]

People DO get paid for Open Source software, but quite a few people do it for free of charge. Most of the money comes from sponsorship and tech support.

[ironic.demise]

everything cost something so i dont understand why ubuntu is free?

and those people who build ubuntu how do they survive doing things for nothing ?

shouldn't ubuntu cost some small amount of money ? i mean lucid for example is really very good piece of OS many things in it are a way better than in win 7 and it doesnt cost any money and im very curious why ?

all this compiz etc who make it ? are those people normal? why dont they charge ??

i use ubuntu for about year and im very very impressed to be honest 2 years ago i thought linux is just for people who do programming and now i know its for everyone.

If you were a programmer wouldn't you try and help? if you would then there's your answer there.

Most people do it for free, but as a hobby not a full-time job.

I'm a little better than most with computers and I plan on learning more as I use Ubuntu and if or when I have something to contribute, i will... for free... so it's just a matter of being able to, and wanting to. bare in mind you don't need to be amazing at programming to help, Ubuntu still need graphics designers and package maintainers so getting good at photoshop or just learning to maintin the system helps... look up MOTU for an idea.