Software should be paid for with small upfront license fees and ongoing fee-based support. It allows companies to acquire applications that they need earlier, and brings greater accountability to the vendor relationship.
Fee-based support obliges us to provide world-class technical support and handle customers' support needs in a timely and professional manner.
Companies lack the skills and/or time to manage open source applications on their own and it is more efficient to pay experts to do it. We must always justify the tag "expert" by being so.
Open source is not "free" software. It is open. No lock-in to closed formats re-balances the commercial relationship in the customer's favour.
Commercial open source software is only a marketing concept if it means "core product" deficient of essential features. Maintaining multiple versions adds cost that is ultimately reflected in the price paid for non-free editions.
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