thinkingphp.org — A totally digg-able headline, an insightful article + cynicism & humor about Web 2.0, Open Source and Digg.com - how much better can it get? If you've not dugg any story today, this is the one it's going to be! Enjoy!
Sep 24, 2006 View in Crawl 4
theundefinedSep 25, 2006Submitter
yeah, I don't disagree, maybe I should change my profession *g* ; )
zeldafanSep 25, 2006
I think that first one is bull. If I'm using an open source piece of software and I have to pay $5-$10 to get support (from random people in the community) I'd rather just not use the product.
Closed AccountSep 25, 2006
I disagree. That's only going to create bad publicity with real users. That your Tech Support requires some kind of monetary "donation" or "payment." Seems a bit backhanded to me. It also sounds like fast-talking marketers making up terms and promoting the usefulness of backhanded "cash flow" techniques.
thirdprizeSep 25, 2006
That's might possibly be all right for a one person organisation but i suspect it wouldn't pay the mortgage. As a developer i would like to make money developing, not sitting by the phone do after sales support. That would just encourage you to make the software hard to set up.
i440Sep 25, 2006
"Do you ever comment on anything *but* FOSS, and ever make anything *but*a critical comment about it?"The answer to both questions are yes and no, respectively. Really. XDI have Ubuntu installed, in fact. Just because I frequently criticize FOSS doesn't mean I hate or even have anything against it. I'm just trying to compensate for Digg bias.I don't even think I'm trolling. I'm just expressing my opinion, and unlike many "trolls", I do believe everything I say is true.And this post, most certainly, was not trolling. It was simply an opposing opinion. If you disagree, you are welcome to make a counterstatement, of course. If I find your argument convincing and valid, I'll even retract my post.
norrisSep 25, 2006
Let me guess...1) customization2) training3) support4) support5) support
i440Sep 25, 2006
I meant to say the answer to both questions was yes. My apologies.
krinthekuzSep 25, 2006
what is it with differing opinions and dislikable facts and being buried?i dunno about you guys, but i think i440 is right and this article is stupid. lets look by the author's suggestions1) commercial support 2.0: why pay for user grade support when there are unpaid sources of the exact same thing? see <a class="user" href="http://forums.gentoo.org">http://forums.gentoo.org</a> (by far the best linux resource on the net) and <a class="user" href="http://ubuntuforums.org.">http://ubuntuforums.org.</a>2) most distros already use donation. however, donations are not a source of income at all.3) merchandising: cafepress is retarded. anyone can go find the same picture/wording on the web and just get it done themselves, and cafepress is overpriced by my opinion. it generally isnt the distros, but more of geek stores doing this stuff anyways.4) generating buzz != generating money. if there's no product to sell, there's no money to be made by generating buzz5) once again, high quality != money. no product means no money.even the first commenter agrees with me on the last 2 being crap. the second commenter agrees that cafepress is overpriced. another commenter uses my same argument in #1 pointing to the commercial experts-exchange.com. another commenter mentions the credibility drop because of spelling/grammar mistakes. i also dislike all the shameless plugs.gee, maybe i440 and i are not alone here, and he's really not trolling. he's just offering a differing opinion and stating some dislikable facts.
Closed AccountSep 25, 2006
<a class="user" href="http://n3p.se/en.php">http://n3p.se/en.php</a>“N3P offers a brand new, contrasting and intrepid two-year college level training in how to become a successful Project Entrepreneur in Open Source. Our students will learn not only the technical possibilities, but also how to exploit new business opportunities, manage profitable ideas, and create flourishing businesses.”“N3P is a privately owned advanced vocational college, financed and accredited by the Swedish Department of Education. The students can apply for loans and grants from the government financing authority N3P is no different than other colleges and universities in Sweden, except for the fact that we are encouraged to be as practical and pragmatic as possible, training our students in tough and realistic situations. Our students will not sit down to construct strategies for others – they will roll up the sleeves and do the task for themselves, thereby putting their own stakes at risk.”
jqp123Sep 25, 2006
The only way to earn money from Open Source that looks even moderately interesting or attractive to me ---- use Open Source components as ready-made building blocks to help create some new, unique product; not necessarily strictly software related. For example, network hardware manufacturers like Linksys and D-Link were some of the first to successfully apply this approach.As they used to say in school, it should be "intuitatively obvious" that there really is no good way to make money directly from Open Source software alone. This is particularly onerous for developers since they are the foundation on which Open Source is built. Customization and panhandling for donations are about the only possiblities for most developers and both have limited opportunities. Most companies will only entertain custom development as a last resort due to the time, expense and uncertainity involved. Most other options; such as support, demand that developers stop doing what they do best and venture out into new territory. In other words, if you're a developer and you want to make money from Open Source, the best advice is to stop developing and do something else. Either this or go to work for a hardware company like Linux Torvalds did for quite some time.