Nobody truly believes "FOSS is free"... sure there's cost, you just gotta figure out what the cost is for you! (that's the trick a "free" product has a unique price for each "buyer", here in lies the beauty and the opportunity of the game). There's no "market price" so it's tricky, but when you can compute the cost and it happens to be very low for your team (and preferably high for competitor's teams), you have a competitive advantages.
OSS is all about leveraging "hidden" advantages agains competitors that have clear and obvious financial advantages over you. If you get it right, you win!
Of course, if you don't like risks and don't like "uncomputable" prices, or "prices unique to each buyer", then sure, be conservative, and stay away from FOSS.
OSS is all about leveraging "hidden" advantages agains competitors that have clear and obvious financial advantages over you. If you get it right, you win!
Of course, if you don't like risks and don't like "uncomputable" prices, or "prices unique to each buyer", then sure, be conservative, and stay away from FOSS.