Business Models for the Open Source Era
Customer demand and superior solutions are at the heart of every
growing market, but given the fact that Linux is essentially free,
what business models make sense? A growing number of companies are
approaching the Linux and Open Source opportunities, each with
different business models.
In a recent Industry Report, Hambrecht & Quist describes five
business models that provide a useful framework for understanding
the Open Source market:
There are approximately three quarters of a million lines of
code in the Linux kernel version 2.0. Windows 2000 is forecast to
contain 35–40 million lines of code.
Resources:
Industry Report, Hambrecht and Quist
Linux Comes of Age; An industry briefing paper by Linuxcare, Inc.
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