Hi All, Greetings, What is open source all about? What it takes to become a opensource programmer? How people make money when they develope softwares and give it for free of cost? Can some one throw some light on these questions?
As a basic example, you can give away your opensource database application but then charge people for additional services such as technical support, training, certification. Alternatively you can also have an "enterprise" version of your opensource application which is itself not opensource. Look at MySQL for example and see their charged for services at http://www.mysql.com/services/
Open source software is one with which source code is included with the compiled version and modification or customization is actually encouraged. To be considered as open source software, certain criteria must be met, Source code must be included Anyone must be allowed to modify the source code Modified versions can be redistributed
also, many open-source projects are created an maintained by volunteers. it's not always about the money, and making a living writing open-source programs is difficult.