"If something goes wrong with Microsoft, I can phone Microsoft up and have it fixed. With Open Source, I have to rely on the community." That's always sounded

"If something goes wrong with Microsoft, I can phone Microsoft up and have it fixed. With Open Source, I have to rely on the community." That's always sounded better than it is. My experience of contacting technical support with any proprietary vendor is the usual tale of being put on hold, messed about for days or weeks, waiting ages for a response to my emails. I started and finished a job with a company last year; it lasted 6 months. The first call I opened was with Sun, and it was still open when I left. Anyway, the 90s just called, and they want their tired old debate back. Companies do make money off open source, it is used in all kinds of businesses, you can get support in a variety of ways and save a ton of cash in the process. The question in the OP is valid, but it was answered a long, long time ago. The best answers came from companies like Google, Red Hat, MySQL, etc, etc.