How do Linux and Open Source Companies make their Money?

[Tpex]

How?

 

[warchylde]

By charging for support.

 

[Avenue]

ubuntu charges for support like warchyide says- but also have a pay cloud computing service and a new music store opening soon. That is unusual though- a lot of opensource venders rely on corporate sponsorship or public donations, some, like blender 3d sell merchandise including training cd's and books, and also rely on googles summer of code where google sponsors a student to program during his summer holiday.... and yet others dont make money at all and program for the love of it.

 

[Tpex]

charging for support? but all the info you need for ubuntu for example is on forums? lots of okes willing to help.
Thanks for the answer, but otherwise companies like Mozilla?

 

[saburation]

Some of them have ads on their websites which people obviously have to pay and some ask for donations or both.

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

Just remember the Open Source dose not always mean its free. Many companies licence their technology. You will see that some apps are free to use for personal or development use, but if you sell / deploy your app your need to either publish your source code or pay royalties.

Also people like Linus make a small fortune by just poping into Geekfests, promotional talks, etc

 

[Ancalagon]

Well yeah, for private use just asking a question on forums is fine. But if you wanted to roll out Ubuntu to your entire workforce, and your servers, you are going to need a support contract. Thats where they make their money. I'm sure they charge endusers sometimes, for instance of grandma is using Ubuntu (maybe her son installed it for her?) and cant figure something out, she might think its worth paying for support.

 

[tco21]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service

 

[czc]

charging for support? but all the info you need for ubuntu for example is on forums? lots of okes willing to help.
Thanks for the answer, but otherwise companies like Mozilla?

It may seem strange to you. But think of a company, they are willing to pay for support.

 

[Tpex]

Ah ok, thanks a ton for the answers guys

 

[chopsuey]

charging for support? but all the info you need for ubuntu for example is on forums? lots of okes willing to help.
Thanks for the answer, but otherwise companies like Mozilla?

That little search box in Firefox make millions a year for Mozilla through Google kickbacks.

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

Also server retailers need to pay Canonical to OK there hardware and do some extra development. Know a company in Cape Town that had to ship two of there servers to UK to get Ubuntu certification on their systems. Besides loosing the two servers, there where some other charges.

 

[WildPikachu]

Support, SLA's, Sponsors

For us the ratio is approximately 20%, 50%, 30%