Matt Asay on the Status of OSS

OSS_ilation writes "An interview with OSBC director Matt Asay at SearchOpenSource.com gives some insight into where open source software (OSS) has been, is today, and where it hopes to be in the future. A common trend identified by Asay in the interview is that OSS has become very profitable. Asay also touched on the hot-button issue of where the GPL is headed, as well as how open source vendors shouldn't let high download rates give them a big head about the real validity of their projects."

Comments

Summation

[Kylere]

If people use it, you can make money from it.
If people download it, it does not mean they are using it.

Funny, but I already knew that. Now I just have to find something people will use besides Video Fish :-)

A Lesson for RIAA ...

[slashbob22]

Just because someone downloads music, doesn't mean they listen to the crap...

Source of revenue...?

[sczimme]

[I did RTFA, though it's entirely possible I missed something.]

Mr. Asay did not clarify the distinction between revenue from product sales and revenue from support and other services. He mentioned Red Hat as an example of an OSS company that is making money, but he didn't indicate how much of that money came from selling RHEL and other products vice the consulting, etc. that RH also offers. He alludes to it briefly when he says "OSS has trended toward examples like the Red Hat Network and the MySQL network" but leaves it at that.

This is not a slam on Asay, btw; it's just something I thought would make the article more useful.