One of the areas that people are uncertain about when they consider open source software is support. When you buy (or these days subscribe) to a closed source software product there is invariably some type support available, for example, an email address or a telephone number, terms and conditions, and an explicit charge. In contrast in the case of open source people are often uncertain about how to get support. Red Hat is an example of a company that early on realized that companies who were relying on Linux for critical business processes required support. Red Hat's versions of Linux are open source and can be downloaded and used without a commercial arrangement with Red Hat. However, Red Hat has created a viable business (Red Hat's market cap was $4.3B the last time I looked) by realizing that people using Linux are willing to pay for commercial support and services.
In the open source geospatial community there are similar types of arrangements though they are not well known. Recently DMSolutions Group, which is a member of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGEO) has announced that in July they will be providing commercial support for open source web mapping technology (Premiere Services ). Initially they will be providing this service for MapServer, but they intend to extend this support in the near future to MapGuide, which is the OSGEO's next generation web mapping application.
To me this represents the next step in the maturing of the open source geospatial sector. This means that anyone who wants to use open source web mapping now has an easy way to find support for their solution.
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