We all know how popular and helpful Linux and open source products are, but since most of them are available for free, how do the companies that produce them make any money to pay their bills? As it turns out, lots of ways.
HOW DEMAND FUELS COMMERCIAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
Let’s start with the issue of demand. The more specialized a type of software is, the fewer users there will be. Generally, the fewer users, the smaller the market opportunity. The smaller the market opportunity, the fewer the number of companies that will invest in developing applications of that type.
There’s actually a bit of a bell curve in the demand/developer ratio for commercial products. Usage areas with very few users have very few developers who are willing to invest. But applications like office suites, which are dominated by a few incredibly powerful players, also have very few companies creating them …
Read more at ZDNet
