Alright, so after a short respite and much thought, here goes with the third part of the unintentional multi-part series on the software business model and how it interacts with FOSS.

In Martin Owen's most recent article on the subject in continuation of this series, he pointed out several good points that I would like to address. So lets jump right into it:

"Proprietary software isn’t useful to the community, it’s useful to individuals."

I seemed to have touched on something in my very recent Making money with Linux? article. I was pointed to a rebuttal written by Martin Owens by some fellow developers in the FOSS community.

Before jumping right into this, I would like to make a cople of things clear. First off, I do not claim, nor have all the answers. Secondly, I am glad for the differing opinions. I firmly believe that posing the question and having different opinions will lead us all to the answers.

Recently while working on a Windows Based Web application for time sheets it occurred to me that while Linux is a great passion there seems a real business model issue.

How Do I make money with Linux?

Several things come to mind:

• Sell Linux Based Hardware
• Support for Linux based systems
• Hosting Solutions such as VPS
• Application Service Providers