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Bruce Perens on the lack of successful Linux companies

«You also commented about the lack of successful Linux companies. This is 
not due to the community treatment of Linux businesses, but the fact that 
Open Source is not a business and should not be treated as one. It's
­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­
successful when operated as a cost-center, in businesses that make their 
money some other way. The most successful ones use the software they 
develop for some business purpose: for example, Apache developers use the 
software to implement web sites for their business, IBM and HP make money 
by selling hardware that runs with Linux, not by selling Linux. 

Eric Raymond and others theorized that support would be a good way to fund 
Open Source, but the support model has under-performed so far, because the 
early adopters are too self-supporting. Sales of proprietary software to 
support the Open Source development are also underperforming, as Linux 
customers, even within the Fortune 500, have become wary of dependence on 
non-Open-Source. 

Thus, no Linux distribution has been more than marginally profitable so 
far. My surmise is that over the long term a non-profit like Debian 
supported by hardware manufacturers and other businesses will work best. 
But I'd be delighted to see you prove me wrong.»

P'tit comqiue, va!

http://lwn.net/daily/perens-robertson.php3

-- 
Eretz Israël, La Terre Promise
Avec Ariel Sharon, ses chars, ses F-16, ses hélicos Apache dans le rôle du 
messie d'Israël
http://pages.infinit.net/mcrit/sionisme.html