Producing Open Source Software

Preface

Why Write This Book?

At parties, people no longer give me a blank stare when I tell them I write free software. “Oh, yes, open source—like Linux?” they say. I nod eagerly in agreement. “Yes, exactly! That’s what I do.” It’s nice not to be completely on the fringe anymore. In the past, the next question was usually fairly predictable: “How do you make money doing that?” To answer, I’d summarize the economics of open source: that there are organizations in whose interest it is to have certain software exist, but that they don’t need to sell copies, they just want to make sure the software is available and maintained, as a tool instead of a commodity.

Lately, however, the next question has not always been about money. The business case for open source software^[1] is no longer so mysterious, and many non-programmers already understand—or at least are not surprised—that there are people employed at it full time. Instead, the question I have been hearing more and more often is "Oh, how does that work?"

I didn’t have a satisfactory answer ready, and the harder I tried to come up with one, the more I realized how complex a topic it really is. Running a free software project is not exactly like running a business (imagine having to constantly negotiate the nature of your product with a group of volunteers, most of whom you’ve never met!). Nor, for various reasons, is it exactly like running a traditional non-profit organization, nor a government. It has similarities to all these things, ...