Free Software Will Win! - The Role Of Free Software Businesses

Free Software Has Come A Long Way Through Volunteer Contributions

So far, Free Software has been advanced primarily by pro-bono contributions from individuals and companies, and this has been remarkably successful. In fact the only reason why commercial proprietary software is still surviving in most areas (in spite of the competition from Free Software) is that so far there has too little activity around making Free Software programs appropriate for users who are not so technically inclined; this must involve professional usability research and testing. The Business Working Group of the DotGNU project aims to motivate some entrepreneurs to start Free Software Businesses that will change this situation.

About Free Software Businesses

A free software business is a company which does not exist solely to earn as much money as possible without incurring unacceptable risks; it's a company where contributing to the development and improvement of Free Software, and upholding the principles of the Free Software movement, are among the basic values of the company. (Here the term "Free Software" refers to computer programs where every user has rights to read and modify the source code, and also rights to redistribute the software, with or without changes, as source code or in binary form. The Free Software Foundation maintains a precise definition which can be found at http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/free-sw.html . There are also people who, because of differing views on matters of philosophy, see the appendix, prefer the term "open source".)

Many people seem to think that there must necessarily be serious economic disadvantages for Free Software companies. In particular, there is a widespread belief that companies which invest into Free Software re