Syed Zillay Ali wrote:
Hi,
I have been working in Open Office org and MS Office as well, since
long. I however still wonder, what are the benefits that companies get
by offering a free software? Or it is just a community effort, no
company behind? There are other open source applications also
available, like Sun Office, but they are not free. I'm interested to
know about the free ones..
Truely,
Ali
In addition to goodwill, companies can gain an advantage by offering
support for a price. Market penetration is also another area where
they benefit. And this applies to both corporations and organizations.
Microsoft, for instance, gives away Internet Explorer, not to mention
several other products. In the organizations case, if you distribute
the software free of charge then you will increase the number of users.
More users = more of a demand for support. In a company's case, that's
where they can make their money.
Another example is publications. While many of them are not free, they
do charge a price that is way below their margin of profit. Where they
really get their money is in the ads, particularly the classifieds
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