Summary
Why do people develop open source software?

Last week I attended Colorado Software Summit, Java and XML Programming Conference. One of the keynotes,The Economics of Open Source, was delivered by Simon Phipps of Sun Microsystems. I am a big fan of open source. I use lots of open source tools/libraries and in my free time I love to play with different open source software. There are so many websites out there that give you access to tons of open source software. Sometimes a thought comes to my mind that why do people write open source software? What is the motivation behind it?

In my opinion, here are the reasons why people write open source software

1. Lot of times people are not able to design/develop the kind of software they would like to in their full time job and so they develop open source software to fulfill their dreams.

2. It is one of the best ways to keep abreast of latest and greatest technologies.

3. For some people,it becomes the showcase of their credentials to get a job.

4. Few open source projects have been developed to support the needs of the organizations and later on open sourced.

5. In the last couple of years or so, a new business model has emerged. Develop an open source software, give it free and then offer fee based professional services including training, support and consulting for that software.

6. Companies encourage their employees to participate in open source projects so that they can influence those projects to suit their needs.

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About the Blogger

Rahul Chaudhary is an architect at a major financial company. Although he has experience in many different languages, he has been deeply into Java over the past few years, having extensive experience with Java, J2EE and its related technologies. Programming is his passion. His interests include Artificial Intelligence and open source. Rahul has a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and a Master's degree in Computer Science.