An open source project for external customers (i.e. us) operated by a bunch of unpaid volunteers will never really be able to compete with an application with paid developers, invested users, and the supporting departments. I'm not saying that open source projects can't get better, that they can't be good, but they will never be as good. For a corollary: twitter.com/patio11/status/936629310785…

@patio11's recent tweetstorm touched upon the core point > Most open source software is written by programmers who are full-time employed by companies which directly consume the software, at the explicit or implicit blessing of their employers. It is not charity work, any more than they charitably file taxes. twitter.com/patio11/status/936629310785… The actual monetization, as the post explains, comes from related products and services. The presented Oracle analogy to IAP is fascinating: > Oracle offers a basic version of MySQL under a GPL license, with additional closed source – and expensive! – add-ons that better fit specific businesses’ needs. The allegory here is in-app purchase: a basic experience that gets the user invested in your product, with value-added options that are more attractive because of said investment

twitter.com/patio11/status/936629310785…