| > do something the extra-hard way indeed > just try I did say "please" try, the nuance is quite important :-) You know, I think the views differ because we have two problems: 1. How can I create a profitable company 2. How can I make my open source work sustainable If you only target 1, open source might not be the more immediately easy solution. I'm aiming at 2, and 1 is one way to do it: given I want to live from open source work (because of my convictions), can I do it by building a company? The answer is: it might be harder, but yes. If you don't care about open source, my comments here are just mostly annoying. |
Of course there are successful examples of just about every model under the sun. If you can find a model, and a business which allows externalities like Open Source then that's fantastic.
And yo be clear I'm not saying companies fail because they are Open Source. Mostly they'll fail for the same reasons every other model folks- they don't generate enough cash to pay the bills.
Indeed Open Source can be an attractive start. There's at least a chance of free labor. There's some marketing milage.
The problem is not the start. The problem is when the money starts flowing. When you're "surviving" no-one is really incentived to muscle in. When you start "thriving" then suddenly your space looks really interesting to others.