What does open source mean in the Linux world

The founder of FSF (The Free Software Foundation) Richard Stallman said “Think free, as in free speech, not the beer.”

CBT Nuggets trainer Shawn Powers also provided a very good analogy — cookies and cookie recipes. The cookies are sold for a price but the cookie recipes are free/ open source.

So basically, it’s not about the money. Companies can still sell their software/ products, however, they must make their source code available free to the world.

The beer can be free as well — there are free Linux distros (for example, CentOS, Ubuntu.) So, how do coders/ developers or companies make a profit?

Some companies make money by providing service/ support for their free software. Others provide open source option with commercial addons. Companies can also provide one product open source to get their name out there/ get foot in the door and sell other products for a profit. Yet another type of companies are hardware vendors — they make open source drivers so that people can contribute to make their drivers better. And, they are selling hardware to make money.