[BangPypers] The myth of free software

[Ramdas S]

> Ok let me tell you the whole story scientifically.
>
> "The chances of anyone succeeding with an Open Source Project or Startup
> Company is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between San
> Fransisco and the location of this OpenSource/Startup Project".
>
> Ya ya, this is hilarious. But think about it. Seriously!
>
>

Ridiculous is the right word not hilarious, when  you make such
generalisation, and spins new theories

You say Startup company or are you meaning a Startup company focused only on
open source. If you are generalising startups, it's completely ridiculous,
almost all successful Indian software companies were startups once upon a
time, and so are in all countries outside US.

So I presume you are saying open source companies/projects.

For many years US and North America used to be the biggest market, and the
American influence was definitely there. But things are changing.

As far as Open Source go. Here's my understanding. You can make money off
Free and Open Source software by merely using them, or helping others to use
them effectively, and then reducing their software acquisition/TCO costs.
You d not have to contribute code or have a project

80-90% of all business(money)  on FOSS comes through this basic principle

Companies such as IBM, HP (IBM, HP makes in excess of a few billion dollars
through this model) and thousands of systems integrators across the world,
including a very small outfit which I run fairly successfully uses this
model to make money month on month.

Some of us (who work or run such small outfits) may not be contributing code
or launching new projects and are not famous, but is making a living from
Free and Open Source software building a services model around it.

That's the beauty of an economy around FOSS.

Finally on the success quotient, I see more startups winding up than
succeeding in tech space. And this is irrespective whether their business
model is build around open source, or closed source or whatever.