Open source software costs money

Open source software is well known for being "free" as in free beer. Many people start using open source software because it's cheap. And while open source software has a lower "total cost of ownership" than proprietary software, i.e. it's cheaper to use open source software than proprietary software, that's only partially because it's free upfront.

As anyone who uses open source software can tell you, open source software is only free initially. Then, like all software it costs to maintain it, trouble shoot it, upgrade it, etc. Only a few like this open source cheapskate that Matt Asay blogs about expect it to come with free customization and support. With open source software you still have to pay or spend time on:

• support,
• upgrades,
• installations,
• integration,
• customizations,
• ...

That said, the costs of using open source software are less than the costs of using proprietary software because:

• There is no upfront fee. So it's much cheaper to acquire it.
• Copies. You can usually copy it onto as many machines as you want. (This might not be true if you bought a support contract from someone.)
• Because it's open source, more people can customize it and support it. Because nobody has a monopoly on it, what any one person can charge you is less. (Linux support should be cheaper than AIX, Solaris or HP-UX support because there's more competition.)
• You can customize it yourself. You don't need to make complicated add-on software or pay a company to customize. You (or a contractor) can customize an existing piece of software to work for you.
• More people are using it, testing it and fixing bugs. You aren't all waiting on one company and their resources.
• ... let me know your reason - just comment below.