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NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 09:23:33 -0500
From: jebblue <n@n.nnn>
Subject: Re: Apache, Eclipse, ... Why do they do this?
Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer
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On Fri, 04 Jul 2014 12:27:17 +0200, Josip Almasi wrote:

> On 07/04/2014 03:28 AM, Stefan Ram wrote:
>>    Apache and the Eclipse Foundation work to create libraries
>>    and software, and then they give it to you for free. Why are
>>    they doing this?
> 
> Why not?
> 
>> Several parties pay for them, for example
>>    IBM supports Eclipse (for example, in 2001, they supported
>>    Eclipse with 40 million USD), why do they do this?
> 
> ... as did google, yahoo, microsoft, and everybody who is anybody:
> http://www.apache.org/foundation/thanks.html
> 
> Check out apache organization chart:
> http://www.apache.org/foundation/governance/orgchart
> 
> As you can see, there's 9 directors governing work of 3000+ people on 
> 100+ projects, and 10 more for infrastructure, fundraising and all other 
> outside business.
> How many directors, managers, salespersons, lawyers, marketing people 
> would an IBM need to do the same, but proprietary, thing?
> Obviously, open source is organizationally superior to proprietary model.
> And, production is waaay cheaper.
> 
> What about tech support?
> Often, users self-organize and answer each other questions.
> OTOH, Cisco had about 4000 people in tech support some 10+ years ago.
> Bug reporting and fixing also superior - user who can pipnpoint the bug 
> can fix it, or reach the developper who can fix it.
> 
> All this works out wonderfully as long as techies are users.
> 
> Regards...

It surprises me to see Microsoft on that thanks list.

Overall great response, thanks for the information.