[silverscorpion]

Hi buddies,
I just had a silly doubt. We've all been using os like linux and softwares like firefox, picasa, VLC media player and a host of other free tools. My queston is who is funding these projects and what is the profit they get by providing these freely to the public. Google also provides a lot of free software solutions. It actually conducts an annual open source coding contest to recognise the best coding talent... So in what way does these help them economically? Why are they doing it?...
Pls clarify...