Economic model for impact of open source software

摘要: At first glance, the competition between open-source software products and proprietary software products seems puzzling. Simple analogies to other sorts of products, such as consumer goods (eg microwave ovens), are counter-intuitive. On one hand, it is unclear how one can successfully demand a price for something which is being given away freely. On the other hand, it does not appear to be sustainable to make open-source products freely available.The latter point has been partially addressed by Richard Stallman in the GNU manifesto (1985). Stallman points out that the open-source code, even if it is freely distributed, can provide revenue opportunities in complementary areas such as support (this is, in fact, the primary revenue model for RedHat, a major distributor of the open-source operating system, Linux). The primary rationale for open-source according to Stallman, however, is the impetus to work in harmony with other computer users by sharing the rights to software. He suggests that public funds (ie a tax) might be appropriate in offseting the expense of making software a public good. Many of Stallman’s arguments are written in the hypothetical, since they pre-date the dramatic growth of open-source development, largely associated with the GNU tools, and the Linux operating system. Open-source development was explored further by Eric Raymond in his paper, The Cathedral and the Bazaar (1997). A case-study is presented of an open-source project, fetchmail, led by Raymond. He debunked the myth that open-source software was developed selflessly for the greater good. Rather, the “bazaar” model for software development is …