On Monday 09 October 2006 21:20, Rony wrote: > > And already some companies are doing that. Successfully till now. > > So the bottom line is that FOSS cannot make money on sales.
Wrong. U can sell and make near 100% profit. U dont have to pay an overseer. > They > can only make money through service and customization. This happens > only for big customers. Thats why the home or small office > customers remain untouched by FOSS companies. Thats where > commercial closed software fills the gap. You couldn't be more off the mark. > If FOSS versions are > available for doing the same tasks, the customer will simply > download that software and use it for free. He still doesn't > generate revenue for the FOSS maker. so your selling price would be limited to the customers download cost right?. What were u expecting gadzillion dollars?. But u could charge an hefty premium and get gadzillion dollars. How? Brand building. How would u postion your stuff, what market segment, what focus. Design an appropriate brand building strategy. Spend Rs. 1 billion and carpet bomb all print and electronic media. I bet Rs.500/- u will be lhe largest selling Linux distro in India. Will u make money selling to individuals? since it's your business u should know. If u dont know u should hire a management team to do the homework. What u are trying to do in this thread is make a business plan with only one input - somebody else's distro. And then conclude without any logic that u cant make money because the next guy has the same input's as u. If u stand in the middle of the herd u are going to move at the same speed as the herd. If u jump out and run u may go far or get eaten by the lions. In either case it's not the fault of the grass, or the land or the herd. U should be smart enough to see the possibilities. As others have pointed out there are umpteen companies selling gpl software, services or both. They are far more profitably than M$ and many are valued several times higher than M$. all of the above applies absolutely equally to closed and open software. Profitability and market share has got nothing to do with the licence. In my loong exposure in this industry most of the software companies were always closed software companies and most of them have gone under / merged / morphed into something else. Not just here but world over. U can see it happening just now to the big bully. I bet u another Rs.500/- that M$ will have changed substantially in the next 5 yrs. -- Rgds JTD -- http://mm.glug-bom.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
