DuckDuckGo: Boosting Search via Open Source Cash Donations
March 21, 2015
There are many ways for commercial enterprises to gain traction via open source. Some companies, like IBM, cheerlead for Eclipse and Lucene, among other open source projects. Other companies hold conferences to tout an open source solution and then pitch extra cost add ons like consulting and training so the unfamiliar can become familiar with the “free” software. A few firms slip open source hints into their commercial messages. One company which sells a government- and academic-based search system used “open source” on a Web page. When I pointed this commercial outfit hinting that their for fee, proprietary product was open source, the reference disappeared after a frisky email exchange. It seems that some company presidents do not look at their own firm’s Web sites.
I read “2015 Open Source Donations.” The write up was straightforward, listing various donations from DuckDuckGo to worthy causes. One of these is the Amnesic Incognito Live System or Tails.
I am okay with this support for open source via cash. Many firms have followed the path. I find it interesting that DuckDuckGo, which I understand is essentially a metasearch engine, is following this route.
Other commercial outfits will become more open about their support of open source. After all, why use a commercial, proprietary product when you can use a perfectly good open source product. All one needs is know how. That, of course, is what the open source services firm sell.
DuckDuckGo wants to keep the communities in which it has an interest watered, fed, and loved. Good deal.
Stephen E Arnold, March 21, 2015
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Tim Decapua
DuckDuckGo: Boosting Search via Open Source Cash Donations : Stephen E. Arnold @ Beyond Search
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DuckDuckGo: Boosting Search via Open Source Cash Donations : Stephen E. Arnold @ Beyond Search