Open source advocates spend a lot of time trying to convince people that open source and business can actually go hand in hand. Unfortunately, the idea of giving things away while making a profit really doesn't mesh for a lot of people, and so it behooves us in the community to put our money where our mouths are and show that what we espouse can actually be done.

In my case, this involves keeping an eye out for interesting intersections between open source and the business world to study and write about. Not only does doing so create yet another way to make a living dealing with the world of open source (how's that for irony?), but it gives me a chance to help educate those who say there are no viable business opportunities in our community while helping the community to learn and perhaps be inspired by both the achievements and mistakes of our compatriots.

One area where open source and business not only merge, but actually weave in and out amongst one another, is the Wine (Wine Is Not an Emulator) project, hosted at www.winehq.org. Wine at various times has been developed in conjunction with Corel Corporation (www.corel.com), CodeWeavers (www.codeweavers.com), Lindows.com Incorporated (www.lindows.com), and TransGaming Technologies (www.transgaming.com).

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