4 ms·

Really good insights on how this is tots fine and works well, but I think it also misses something key: As company, you can make money by giving something away

• maxxxxx 8y ago
  It may also be a tool to to push out competition. Keep your own money making stuff proprietary but make everything else open source so others can't survive. this seems to be the Google and Facebook strategy.
  • detuur 8y ago
    If you make the stuff that powers your way of doing business free, you'll push out everyone who tries anything different. If your way is rule, you're king.
• rectang 8y ago
  Under this analysis, some portion of the Open Source efforts out there fall into a very old tradition that includes promotional giveaways, loss leaders, and so on. It is the application of old principles to a new arena.
• sunir 8y ago
  That isn’t key. Making money by giving away something is free is physically impossible. Therefore there is something critical you are missing about what is going on. It’s only key in the other sense that it will unlock a door to greater understanding if you seek out what underlies the contradiction.