tags: #publish links: [[Software and Tech]] created: 2023-01-11 Wed --- # Reasons to open source (As a profit-making company) - To drive down the cost of your complements, increasing demand for your main product: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/ - To decrease customer concerns about vendor lock-in which may be a barrier to purchase - To support an ecosystem around your product that has other [[Vendor Lock-in]] benefits, or create a new market via loss-leader low initial costs for consumers - To support a "free product, paid support" model (i.e. this model lets it be economically viable and the other reasons are why you actually opensource it) - To remove patent or IP competition from an area and force competitors to compete on some other dimension - To improve brand image, advertising, to attract **customers** - To improve brand image, advertising, to attract **employees** - To support an attractive engineering culture allowing you to attract and retain potential employees with a particular mindset - To get free volunteer labour. - Rarely the main reason, takes a very visible or desirable open-source product and a large investment in community and organisation. The default is that your staff end up doing *extra* work to design as open source and to operate in public view.