Business Success with Open Source

Lower Total Cost of Ownership

In ​Maintenance Costs​, you learned about the concept of free as in puppy. That adorable little slobber-factory that you picked up from the farmer down the road is only “free” in the sense that you lifted it out of a box and took it home; it still costs time and money to maintain. While people often apply this metaphor to FOSS, it’s valid for anything you create. You can save seeds or take cuttings for your “free” garden, but it still requires fertilizer, water, and weeding. You can release a product to solve customer pain points, but you still need to develop and release updates to keep the customers happy. The resources and effort required to maintain these is a large component of each thing’s Total Cost of Ownership ...