Biz Investment in Freeware

[Hamied Abou Hulaikah]

Hi,
I don't understand the benefits for business sector in investment in free software & related tools? How they gain profit?
There are many many examples of these cases, example JAVA & so on!

 

[andymc]

Generally businesses charge for commercial use or support for these tools.
Java for example, now charges licence fees if you use it commercially.

Linux is another, the Fedora distribution is free to use, but the Commercial version "Redhat" charges a licence fee, most businesses prefer to be seen to use "professional" software so they get the licenced version.

 

[Sandman]

most businesses prefer to be seen to use "professional" software

That's a bit over-simplified, I think. I would say it's not mainly about optics, it's about accountability and support levels. One very typical reasoning, in my experience, is that the customer want to be able to pay somebody. Because the day the software stops working they really want to be able to call them and expect assistance. That's not something you can count on when it comes to open source, but if you're paying for it, it's a completely different discussion. (Anecdote: way back I worked at a company that refused open source solutions for this exact reason. As long as they could pay somebody and expect support, all was good.)

 

[eps]

Yep, once it gets used commercially you have to use the supported versions. You end up paying for development services, training, support, customisation and new features. Sometimes some parts are free, but a few extras that are more commercially focussed you have to pay for or develop yourself (so either way you pay).