I disagree that open source has a disadvantage when it comes to profiting off of public sector contracts. I work in public sector contracting. A strong open-source integrator is more cost effective than one of the big consulting firms utilizing proprietary solutions. Support contracts are easy to write in an expedited fashion, and are just gravy to any open-source consulting firm because the majority of development (and even, now, some good documentation) costs are shared by the community as a whole.
Margins can be so much higher than traditional proprietary offerings because the development costs are shared, just as ownership is distributed. No open source-based consulting firm/integrator will be successful without having a significant (i.e., 30% of gross profits) marketing budget, and a strong strategy for growth. But, at the very least, service contracts to support or deploy open source projects can be nearly pure gravy for the well marketed integrators out there.
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