If you're a company developing software, you might be tempted to put some of your software under a free or open source license. Putting code under an open source license isn't a solution in itself though, there's a lot more to do: building a community of developers for example. There's no magic recipe to apply, but there's a lot to learn by looking at Xara's failed attempt as described by Linux.com and commented by Matt Asay.

Xara put their vector drawing tool under an open source license, except for the central piece of the tool: the CDraw rendering library. Refusing to listen to the objections of the emerging community, the project failed to get the needed developers attention. The lessons? If you want to go free and open source, go for it wholeheartedly, and be ready to collaborate with the community. If you're not ready for that, it might be wiser to wait a bit.