Hello Mr. Young,

This is a fantastic model. You have done it again. Can we discuss an enhancement to your business?

I can be reached at DavidJemeyson@ClearChannel.com or my office 210-253-5270.

Best Regards,
David Jemeyson

A very excellent read, but I just want to let you know that 'fro' is supposed to be 'from' on page 7 paragraph 4 line 1 word 7.

It's good to see somebody make the case that you can build a viable business on open source software. I guess my only complaint is that I was hoping for a more practical guide on how to do it. I'd like to start a business, and I'm trying to come up with an idea of how to take an existing open source product and add value to it. Maybe I'm not creative enough.

One thing I've noticed is that some of the companies that are successful in this arena are using open source as just one small piece of their pie. IBM, for example, is selling servers and software that just happen to run Linux. They previously had sunk over a billion dollars into developing (and failing with) OS/2, and then they spent gobs more licensing Windows from MS. Using Linux removed a money hole from their business model. They make their money not by "selling" Linux any more than GM makes their money by selling steel.

The Red Hat model of giving away the software and selling the support may not be the one that dominates in the future. It should be interesting to see how the open source movement evolves over the next couple of decades.

I much enjoyed this free download - giving it away, indeed! Not being familiar with all the terms and jargon was not an obstacle to getting something from it anyway. Good Luck with sales, Bob - and with Lulu, which I think is a terrific concept and one for which I personally am exceedingly grateful.