How do they make there money? For eg. PhpNuke or the other programs found at freshmeat etc.?

First, many programs are given away, and then support is what you pay for (ala apache). -Or 2 versions are released, one more limited, with a fully-featured paid upgrade. -Or just a few programmers getting together and creating something that kicks butt (not wanting compensation). -Or they might want to sell the company/program in the future to developers once they've gotten 10,000 users addicted.

We use PhpNuke, and it's a really nice program for puttting up a community news portal type of site, other than it's 35 calls in the index.php file to the config.php file and it's rather slow, okay really slow, but version 4.3 is promised around the corner, and supposedly the page will now load in about 1.5 seconds instead of the 5 to 10 seconds it takes now.

Some of these people dont need any compensation, their compensation is seeing 100,000 people use their programs, its rather like postcardware, where you send a post card to the programmer saying you use it and thanks, for some people that's all they need to continue with their efforts.

I guess, but bottom line is you need money to survive. So where does that come from?

Well,

I decided to make my message board PHPBulletin (http://www.phpbulletin.com) open source. I'll probably place a banner on phpbulletin.com and make money from that...

I could also charge for support also.

Matt, I was just looking at your project a day ago! Matt (the *other* Matt) turned me onto it and it looks very nice! Can't wait to see what comes of it but do like what you've done so far. Just wanted to tell ya'.

Originally posted by kunal
I guess, but bottom line is you need money to survive. So where does that come from?

Kunal,
Well a lot, Id be guessing here, but I'd say that probably 90% of open source programmers do it for fun, and have other jobs. So their primary income is not received from these free programs that the put out, but rather from a day job, and their open source software is a side line, or a hobby of sorts.

Personally, I have put out open source programs in the past, a couple of times but only one comes to mind at the moment, where someone wrote a classified ad scripts, and I wrote an anonymous email script for it as an addon, nothing elaborate, maybe 10 or 15 hours worth of work, and was giving it away for free. Until I found someone else on the net that was selling it even though that was the only provision in my giving it away, that nobody sell it for any money, feel free to mod it, and give it away, but never sell it. Well I used to put a tracking image a couple of times in every script so that I could see who was using the program, just a kick to see how many people would use it worldwide, but after finding out that two others were selling it, I stopped putting out free programs.

My primary income did not certainly come from putting out any programs even though some have made me quite a bit of money in the past, but rather from designing websites, and running a warranty administration company for auto dealerships. So.....

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well, i just got a raise at mcdonalds... so i'm fine...

Originally posted by i am a
well, i just got a raise at mcdonalds... so i'm fine...

Stay with 'em, i am a.

I hear McDonalds is going to take an example from Dell, and go into the hosting business soon.

McMegabyte Value Package? Hmmmm...

Originally posted by Chicken
McMegabyte Value Package? Hmmmm...

That's the rumor... and it comes with a large order of fries.

Hope they do a better job of getting hosting orders right than they do at the drive-up window.

hey hold on a second...

the drive through window is one of the more complex procedures at mcdonalds... sure, you may be a master fryguy, a burger microwaver extrordinaire, but the real skill of challenge and endurance is the drive through window...!

i'm honored to have been promoted there recently, i will not have you sully my profession!

that being said... dont' forget! it'll be cheeseburger sunday soon, 39c cheeseburgers... but remember, limit 20 per customer!

Originally posted by i am a
hey hold on a second...
i'm honored to have been promoted [to the drive through window] recently, i will not have you sully my profession!

I'd never dream of sullying a time-honored, distinguished profession such as yours; especially in the able hands of one so clearly capable of the demands of this occupation.

Now -- just try to remember -- the wet stuff in the tall, thin things that come with a straw? Those are the drinks. The yellow skinny things with the salt on them? Those are the fries.

Please don't mix the two together like you usually do.

Also note that when I order my maximum twenty 39c cheeseburgers, I expect to have twenty in the bag, not nineteen like usual either.

I had 21 in my bag, Chicken -- so, obviously, the extra burger belongs to you.

Where would you like it shipped?

Do NOT get me started on Micky D's.

I have had the worst experience the last two times that we have gone there, actually two days in a row, once on the road - Yesterday on the way to my folks 2hundred miles away for thanksgiving, and once on the way to a client this morning, both times they screwed up the order. Yesterday had no time to turn back in and stop, today got only one block away and found a complete different order in my bag. Ordered 1/4 lber with cheese NO ONIONS, found a fresh and tasty with extra onions. I really think it's a conspiracy!
;-)

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Obviously, any open source programs gotten from McDonald's should be used with caution. You might think you downloaded a bulletin board, for instance -- and find yourself running an adult dating service.