When many business owners see “open-source,” they immediately think “free.”

And that's not necessarily a bad thing, but cost is just a SMALL part of what open-source is really about.

With AI develop tools, there are literally hundreds of new open-source AI and automation tools popping up every week.

And so my goal this week is to educate you about open-source software and explain how, why, and when it makes sense in your business toolset.

Today let’s answer a simple question . . .

Even if a company charges for a commercial version of an open-source product, why in the hell would they choose to give away their “secret sauce?”

Great question!

There’s not one definitive answer—everyone has their own personal reasons for releasing their code as open-source.

For a lot of developers, they only release an open-source version and don’t even offer a commercial version.

It’s typically based on a philosophical desire to give back to the community.

But let’s zero in on for-profit commercial software where they choose to release the source code.

Why would they do that?

REASON #1: Crowd-sourced development

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not big into sports.

But I have friends who would give their bodily appendages to be asked to assistant coach a professional football team. (You can take that as “soccer” or American football 😃).

But realistically, it’s not gonna happen.

On the other hand, great developers would LOVE to work on large-scale projects at Microsoft or Google.

Guess what . . . they can!

And so when Microsoft releases open-source code, it gives ANYONE the opportunity to improve the code by working on ACTUAL MICROSOFT CODE.

In essence, Microsoft is “paying” developers with the opportunity to work on Microsoft code.

REASON #2: Faster Bottom-Up Sales

Most software these days is built on a subscription model.

You can put in your credit card and sign up for a trial, and hope you remember to cancel if you don’t like it.

Open-source lets you download it to YOUR computer.

YOU can run it, configure it, tweak it, host it.

Play with it as long as you’d like without the impending monthly charge looming over you.

The hope is that eventually you’ll outgrow your open-source and need to scale up to their commercial/cloud offering.

REASON #3: Build Community Trust, Better Security and Transparency

Conspiracy theories are more popular than ever these days.

They’re especially rife in government because so much of it is closed to the public.

If you can’t see it, it’s easy to make claims that they’re hiding something.

And so when companies open-source their code, they’re exposing EVERYTHING to the world . . . such as:

• How authentication works

• What algorithms they’re using

• What data they’re collecting

• How data is encrypted

Not only can developers SEE the code, but they can also SUBMIT change requests and recommendations.

If something isn’t secure, any developer in the world can write more secure code and submit it for everyone else to review.

In the end, we ALL get (hopefully) better, faster and more secure software.

So, does this mean that open-source is “better” than commercial software?

Not necessarily, but I hope this makes it clear that “free” open-source definitely doesn’t mean that it’s lower quality.

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