By Juancarlo A ez. When royalties are out of the question, programmers find innovative ways of earning profits, such as providing value-added services. New ways of making business out of open source are being invented every day. That's what critics call open-source programmers. Last week I suggested that those who perceive open-source programmers to be mere hobbyists were in for a big surprise.
Case studies Many open-source advocates are entrepreneurs.
As many of you know, open source has already produced its first round of millionaire techies with Red Hat's initial public offering. RedHat assembles and tests the thousands of parts that compose a Linux distribution, selling the CDs and installation support through retail channels. The company also sells support and consulting services to corporate Linux users and distributors. The RedHat IPO is special in that recognized open-source developers had the opportunity to get their share of the deal through eTrade's online brokering service. Other companies, such as Turbo Linux , are working eagerly to get on the same train as RedHat.