I hope I am not feeding a troll here. The economic model behind PostgreSQL is a very good one. Here is my understanding of it. Various people in the community cooperate but they also sell products (EnterpriseDB, Green Plum) based on the codebase along with their proprietary enhancements. Others sell services including hosting and consulting. In general anyone who does not share everything practical ends up paying for it later in terms of internal maintenance overhead. Everyone benefits. The wonderful thing about open source software is that every one of us owns the means of production not in a collective or a government but individually. I can take PostgreSQL and make a living off it. You can take my program that runs on it (LedgerSMB) and make a living off it. We can take these pieces of software and use them to provide services to others. The barrier to getting into business for yourself is very low. In my view, if you don't want to pay for hosting and you need all these features, you probably don't really need hosting. The only way you will get hosting is if you convince someone that taking you on benefits them more than the costs (either by paying them or making the case that it's a good business idea to take you on), or ---- the wonderful thing about free and unfettered access to the means of production --- you can set up your own system with all these technologies. That's the free hosting solution that might work best for you. Best Wishes, Chris Travers -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general
