With the overwhelming number of all kinds open souce code projects popping up everywhere (i.e. sourceforge.net, etc), I always wonder what does the owner of the software actually get out of it? Why would you ever make your software publicly available for free? I do know some goods in doing that but I wanna hear more. I understand the “shareware” concept but free? especially when your target audience on a repository like sourceforge.net is mostly developers?
I know that big companies do that all the time to promote their “already established” business but I am not talking about those big companies. I am speaking of individuals like you and me.
I wonder that too.... here r some that i can list off the top of my head...
-The owner gets a warm recognition and respect by the community
-Giving out free encourages more use of your software --- your name would hold a lot more value --- Spybot creator Patrick Kolla and HijackThis creator Merijn Bellekom r prime examples. ---- You may be able to write ur own ticket on ur next job
-You care about the society in general and your blood boils when you see people using "buggy M$ products" so you spend a year in solitude and do something for humanity.
-You are trying to get into a job or some government project ... n u realize that a sourceforge project is the place to start...
Actually, at one point your knowledge, thoughts, skills overflow and come out whether in form of painting or a computer software.
Programming is like poetry, philosophy and paintings etc. It involves much imagination when you start thinking in a programming language. I have noticed that mostly the old programmers are into medium to large scaled open source projects. Usually open source developers are writing commercial applications on the other hand but sometimes an idea or a piece of code that doesnt meet the requirement of a customer is released open source and freeware. And this (atleast in my case) is also very much related to personal satisfaction. There is also another reason of writing an open source program that that program is kind of a revision exercise for the programmer's skill set.
Apart from programming, I've seen architects and automobile engineers transmitting their ideas on private papers. The whole process of such (apparently useless) freeware transmission is refinement of expertise.
In fact, every programmer writes software for practise but some share that code with others as open source.
I think both opensource and closed source / commercial software has its merits.
open source to me seems ideal for teachers/students in the IT/programming industry. It helps them give something back to the community, and sharpens their programming skills, enabling them to learn how softwares work in the real world etc.
But to be honest, i dont see anyone surviving off open source programs when it comes to the job market, so there I believe commercial softwares have more of a value. Ofcourse some people believe that even then if you open source your product, companies will hire you for "support" - this i find hard to believe. it probably happens on a very small scale.