> There's nothing special about having software where anyone can contribute freely, that makes it attractive to customers.
That may be true for some customers, but certainly not all. Being able to fix a bug or add a feature yourself instead of having to wait for a vendor to do it for you can be very attractive. Especially if you need a feature that would never be accepted upstream, and you have the ability to use your own fork/patchset. That is something my company has done many times, and is a factor when choosing software.
That may be true for some customers, but certainly not all. Being able to fix a bug or add a feature yourself instead of having to wait for a vendor to do it for you can be very attractive. Especially if you need a feature that would never be accepted upstream, and you have the ability to use your own fork/patchset. That is something my company has done many times, and is a factor when choosing software.