I’ve commented before on Simon Phipps’ thoughts on the economics of open-source commununities: Each member is responsible for covering their own costs and because of that there’s a level playing field for all participants, and use without contribution is also OK. I came across a neat example of how this is working in practice with LightZone, a piece of commercial software for processing files from digital cameras. This software is free on Linux, but costs USD 250 on Windows and Mac OS X. As reported in linux.com:

A spokesman for the company says that they gets more from its Linux customers than it loses in hypothetical sales. The company felt that Linux licenses would be a fraction of Windows and Mac sales, and not worth the marketing expense. But as a free download, LightZone attracts as many customers as Windows does at its current price point. And those Linux users are dedicated, assisting with bug reports, translations, and valuable feedback.

So, the community based open-source development model attracts a different kind of contribution – people donating their abilities rather than handing over their credit cards. I also suspect that some of these contributors have the kind of skills, and command the kind of salaries in their day jobs, that would put them beyond LightZone’s price range. Sounds like good news all round to me.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 15th, 2007 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Open-source. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.