[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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