> One of the problems is that if your target market is other devs, there is a knee jerk demand that your software should be foss and free (as in beer). The pro

> One of the problems is that if your target market is other devs, there is a knee jerk demand that your software should be foss and free (as in beer). The problem with source-available COSS licenses like SSPLv1, BSLv1, Perimeter etc is that, it almost to the point of insulting developers who care about FOSS, wants to have its cake and eat it too: That is, the benefits of both, open and proprietary software. That's a hard sell, and it remains to be seen if they'd be as successful as FOSS for developer tools: http://dtrace.org/blogs/bmc/2018/12/14/open-source-confronts-its-midlife-crisis/ http://dtrace.org/blogs/bmc/2018/12/14/open-source-confronts... and https://steveklabnik.com/writing/the-culture-war-at-the-heart-of-open-source https://steveklabnik.com/writing/the-culture-war-at-the-hear... Another popular strategy is to open source just enough bits, but not all of it: Previously named "open-core", pioneered by Elastic (who have since moved to SSPLv1) and GitLab, but is now accepted as open-source, anyway. Tailscale falls in this category. https://www.heavybit.com/library/video/commercial-open-source-business-strategies/ https://www.heavybit.com/library/video/commercial-open-sourc... > I hope that we'll see a move away from foss licensing to source available licenses over the next few years and an increased acceptance of this model in more areas. Nouveau open source strategy is to have a strangle hold on the software itself (think Chrome / Android) by keeping the development tightly guarded along with the business interests of the original sponsor. Typically, these projects are open sourced to commodotise competitor's advantages (Symbian/Blackberry in the case of Android, IE in the case of Chrome): https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/ The traditional way of being in a F/OSS business was through associate services like deployments and consulting ala RedHat for Linux / Acquia for Drupal: http://dtrace.org/blogs/bmc/2004/08/28/the-economics-of-software/ http://dtrace.org/blogs/bmc/2004/08/28/the-economics-of-soft... Open source, in particular FOSS (free-as-in-beer), in itself is a business strategy (but not a business model) if one knows how to use it to their advantage (as the author points out, many startups doing so these days): https://a16z.com/2019/01/22/what-comes-after-open-source/ https://a16z.com/2019/01/22/what-comes-after-open-source/