Making money while programming Linux and/or open source for small business?

Question

During university, I wanted to start a software business. I didn't know what at the time, but I knew it would have to be Windows and closed source in order to make enough money to support a career.

Was I wrong? What could I have been told that would have changed my mind? I'm looking for arguments about why I could have programmed Linux and/or open source, while being a small business and while still make money.

I do understand that the question relating to programming for Linux and relating to programming open source can have 2 completely different answers.

Answer 1

I think you could easily have done web based development, which would have let you determine the best platform. Doing open source and making money would be pretty hard as a college student, since people who make money on open source are typically providing support. I would think a college student's schedule would not be amenable to the sort of hours that doing support would require, i.e, you need to be available 8-5.

I know several students who have their own businesses doing web-based development.

Answer 2

Can't help writing this quote:

The real money isn't in the software. It's in the service you build with that software.

Answer 3

If you'd like to make money while using Linux and open-source software, definitely try doing PHP/MySQL work. Websites have their own platform issues (browser compatibility work can be painful), but if you feel strongly about using Linux, it's worth it ;)

You could also combine the web-app business with hosting the pages you build; besides being something else you can charge for, it also means you get to choose your development environment. The disadvantage is, you have to do the administration, back data up, and watch for attackers. It'd be more work, but I've seen it work out extremely well for some people.

Answer 4

As many have said web based applications, and services allow for using linux. I work for just such a small business.

Also I am attempting a venture on my own. Closed source application development I believe that I can make it using linux as my development environment. Seeing that both Linux and Mac are gaining notice somewhat I am attempting to develop for all 3 platforms simultaneously. You can do this in many ways. You could use Platform Independent languages like Java, or visual packages like gtk, or qt that are meant to work on win/*nix/mac.

Answer 5

There are many ways to make money out of programming. The two more common can be summarized as:

1. write software then sell it.
2. charge for writing software.

if you're interested in the first case, then yes, the easiest way to charge for a box of software is to make it closed source.

But.... that's a very hard job for a small business. at least, you have to either convince a lot of people that your cheap software is worth the time to test it, or convince a few people that your very expensive software is worth the lot of money you charge to compensate your costs. either way it's a huge marketing work.

OTOH, if you find some interested public and charge them for writing the software they need, then it doesn't matter to you if it's private or OSS. And if it is OSS, then you can use the huge amount of GPL software to base your solution. That means a lot less work for you, therefore faster and better results, so you can charge less and still earn more.