I love a good myth busting article when I can find one. Today’s article from Linux Magazine certainly did not let me down at all either. One of the first things they explain right out of the gate is that money can in fact be made with Open Source software.

Another point that I found interesting was their take on the little known dual-licensing concept. For instance, did you know that Sun maintains two distinctive licenses on Open Office? The first is the good ‘ol Lesser GNU Public License and the second is called Sun Industry Standards and Source License.

Open source vendors are often asked how they make money if their software is free. Well, believe it or not, open source and profit are not oxymorons. In fact, several open source vendors are making money, growing in size, revenue, installed base, and influence.

While products, business models, and licenses differ, companies such as MySQL AB (creators of the MySQL database), Sleepycat Software (creators of Berkeley DB and Berkeley DB XML), and Trolltech (proprietors of Qt and Qtopia) are proving that you can take open source to the bank. Cha-ching!

Contrary to popular perception, open source software companies are making money. While consulting fees and software subscriptions provide the lion’s share of revenue for most open source vendors, another (not necessarily mutually exclusive) business model, the dual license, is garnering profits, too. A dual license allows software makers to provide commercial software licenses for a fee, while simultaneously providing free software to a broader community.