Open Source has a stigma of being a bunch of hippies (on flower-power iMacs?), which is of course inaccurate. From the viewpoint of a cold hard cash-minded MBA, the Open Source structure actually is a marvelous lesson in economic efficiency.
What? Well, in traditional software, the price premium is a composite of fixed overhead costs, variable costs and profit returned to investors. So the cost of traditional software is a product of not only the time of the programmer, but also the peripheral expenses.
In the Open Source model, the only price driver is time. Now, Open Source software is free. But delivery and support (both things that can be circumvented, provided you have the time to do it yourself) are where the cost is represented. One step further, the customer can add value to the product as a node in the network - through making improvements to the code, participating in support forums or contributing bug reports and feedback.
The benefit? In classic Internet/information revolution form, middle men are eliminated and value is increased. R&D investment risk in minimized and the producer has an open channel of communication to the customer. Not to mention a leveled playing field, and no tear gas.
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