Discussion on:

Five reasons why your company should hire open source developers

there is a difference.

Hiring an open source developer doesn't mean they will create a product for a free community, but they can create a product by using open source software at their disposal. The Support needed to get some of the software to work can be publicly questioned in sections so that the public still doesn't know what the product is. And in return the company can still sell the product for "all" systems and not have to be an open source package.

...

Postgresql has several developers who are paid by their employer, to work on the postgresql database engine.

The company in question uses Postgresql in their own application they produce, so they further the development of the open source project to benefit their own product.

I believe that the process of hiring open source developers is transparent in nature, Ohloh plays a great role in this respect.

If you hire an open source geek you better think to give him/her the opportunity to keep working on his/her favorite project. Moreover, you might want to ask him/her to do things he/she likes, especially if he/she is an open source hero (yes, these people can quit and find a new job easily, if they want to).

sadly i just have stubble

In see no qualification. For example:

"passion in the open source community runs a bit hotter than it does in the non-open source communities".

Yeah, now prove it.

Besides - how about both as a mix. No open, not closed. That is the future!