7 Ways Your Company Can Support Open Source

Does your company benefit from open source projects? Then you should support them -- and not just by donating money

Your business most likely depends on open source software. But are you doing your part to make sure it will be there in the future? For that to happen, the projects where it is both maintained and improved need to flourish.

How can you contribute to that goal? The first thought most of us have -- donate money -- is unlikely to be the best way to support the open source projects that are most important to you. While proprietary software companies want your money in huge quantities to pay their shareholders, executives, and staff, most of the people who develop the code in open source communities are paid elsewhere. As a consequence, there's a modest need for cash and a little goes a long way.

So how best to support open source? Here are seven ways your company can strengthen the open source projects you depend on: