Open source enthusiasts believe that better software can result from an open source software development model than from proprietary development models. So in theory, any company creating software for its own use can save money by adding its software contributions to those of others to gain a much better end product for themselves. Companies that want to make money selling software need to be more creative than they did in the old days. While you can sell the software you create that includes GPL software, you must pass the source code of that software forward. Of course, others can then recompile that product, basically using your product without charge. Here are a few ways that companies are dealing with that issue:

• Software subscriptions—Red Hat, Inc. sells its Red Hat Enterprise Linux products on a subscription basis. For a certain amount of money per year, you get binary code to run Linux (so you don’t have to compile it yourself), guaranteed support, tools for tracking the hardware and software on your computer, and access to the company’s knowledge base. While Red Hat’s Fedora project includes much of the same software and is also available in binary form, there are...