[ubuntu-uk] Manchester Free Software : RMS Video
Andrew Oakley
andrew at aoakley.com
Sun May 11 08:15:55 BST 2008
Lucy wrote:
> How to make money from free software is an interesting and difficult
> topic
I really don't think that's true - for me, it's a straightforward and
simple topic that has provided over 12 years of stable employment.
As a programmer or project manager, I've written or helped write plenty
of systems based on free software. For example, as development manager
for MessageLabs' anti-spam service for four years. This was a well-paid
job which used free software almost exclusively (notably, spamassassin).
We customised lots of free software to fit our employer's requirements,
and contributed any improvements back to the free project.
The way to make money from free software is to find an employer who
wants something custom, bespoke, written for them. You then take a free
software package as your starting point, write the customisations, get
paid, and release it.
Customisations fit into two categories:
* Configuration
* Improvements
Configuration is generally of no interest to the wider public and is not
usually covered by GPL-like licences, ergo does not usually require open
source release.
Improvements are covered usually by GPL and similar, and, if the result
is released to the public, the source code must be available to the
public too.
Releasing source code to the public can be a tricky argument to win with
some employers, but they have to remember that for GPL code it is a
legal duty, not something that can be opted out of. The trick to make
things easier is to keep the programming generic, and add specific
company stuff in the configuration. Several companies I've worked for
have also insisted that all GPL upstream releases must be made in the
individual names of the programmers, instead of the name of the company
(MessageLabs, for example).
--
Andrew Oakley
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