Open Source Doesn’t Mean Free

I don’t think that I am alone when I say that my perception of open source is that it is low cost. In fact, if I was to play word association and said “open source” I think i might follow that up with “free”. I’d be curious how many other people would say the same thing? However, as this article shows, there are plenty of costs, and just because an LMS provider may offer its code as “open source” doesn’t mean they aren’t in pursuit of making some serious cashishe.

“Open Source does not prevent these projects from going commercial. Both Dokeos and Moodle are developed by companies which sell support, customization and site hosting even though they allow the full source code to be downloaded free of charge.” (pg. 219 “Open Source Course Management Systems: a Case Study” by Eric Rémy)

Definitely something to think about in terms of LMS evaluation, me thinks. How about you?