Open source software is ever more popular, and the concept extends beyond the software code itself. Most of us have used Wikipedia and know that the information seen there is populated by a large community of contributors… and this is just one of many examples.

The primary reason companies decide to open source their code is varied depending on their overall strategy and product maturity, however all companies stand to benefit from contributions from a community of software developers using and then modifying the open source code to cater to their particular use cases.

These modifications are *often* contributed back to the company that open sourced their software, and these contributions are then tested and compiled into software updates that benefit the company, it’s paying customers, and the community itself.

NOTE: in the previos paragraph the word *often* should ideally be *always*, but some community members do not contribute back their modifications for a variety of reasons – this is a topic that we hope to address in a later discussion.

The ability for companies to improve their products via open source software while maintaining their cost base, ideally translates into affordable prices for their paying customers, attracting more users of their product (some paying and some not), thus building brand equity and ultimately generating profits for the companies that decided to open source their software.

This combination of maintaining costs, increasing users, building a community of users around a product and brand, should indeed lead to profitability, but it doesn’t always… why? A common misconception, but one that affects not only perception, but financial realities, is that all open source software is free of charge.

We hope to address this topic in later discussions, because navigating this fine line between this ‘free’ perception of open source software, and making it financially sustainable for companies, is a matter that determines that sustainability of open source projects, communities and companies.