For all of those like me still confused about the open source business model, I found this article outlining various approaches open source companies can use to make money. I find it clarifying in understanding the difference in approach that MDB and ESTC are taking.
https://blog.timescale.com/how-open-source-software-makes-mo…
Thanks for the Open Source link. Yes, making money by giving stuff away is hard. Hosting, IMO, is the best of the five business models because it provides a lot more perceived value than the Open Source code all by itself – you pay for a service and you don’t particularly care how the supplier puts it together.
Mongo earning season is a perfect illustration. While people were touting Mongo’s “freemium” I did not invest until I saw the accelerated uptake of Atlas, their hosting service which is growing at an astounding 400%. The reason for their new stricter licensing is to stop cloud providers from cannibalizing their hosting business.
Denny Schlesinger