Can a Product Spread Through Open Source?

Yes, absolutely, and it's a very clever dissemination strategy.

Let me give you an analogy, and you'll understand.

Imagine you've developed a secret recipe for a "super sauce" that tastes exceptionally good.

The traditional approach is: You lock the recipe in a safe, build a factory, spend a fortune on advertising, tell everyone "my sauce is the best in the world," and then sell it bottle by bottle. Consumers can only taste it if they buy it, making promotion slow and expensive.

The open-source approach is: You directly make your "sauce recipe" public. Anyone can take it and use it for free, and they can even modify it to suit their own taste.

See what happens?

Instant Word-of-Mouth Explosion: Because it's free, countless home kitchens and restaurant owners will try your recipe. The barrier to entry drops to zero. As long as your product is genuinely good, word-of-mouth will spread like a virus, faster than spending millions on advertising. People will say: "Go try that public sauce recipe, you won't regret it!"
Massive Trust: By making your recipe public, you demonstrate absolute confidence in your product and transparency. For those in the know (like other chefs), they can see how brilliant your recipe is, they'll admire you from the bottom of their hearts, and help you promote it. It's like a restaurant that dares to have an "open kitchen"—people feel more at ease eating there.
Gain a Free "R&D Team": Some chefs (who are like developers in the community) use your recipe and find it good, but they might think, "it would be even better with a little spice." So, they modify it themselves and share the improved version. Another person might discover that this recipe works wonders with seafood, so they write a "Seafood Cooking Guide." Gradually, with the help of countless people, your sauce recipe becomes more and more powerful, adaptable to all sorts of dishes. These people are your "wild R&D" and "wild promotion" army.

At this point, you're probably asking: If everything is given away for free, how do I make money?

This is precisely the clever part. Open source is never charity; it's a business model.

Let's go back to the sauce example:

Sell "Brand Licensing" or "Value-Added Services": While the recipe is public, you can establish an "Official Sauce Consulting Company." Small restaurants using the recipe for fun is fine, but large chain restaurants like Haidilao need stability, safety, and someone responsible if issues arise. They will pay you for technical support to ensure the sauce taste is consistent across their hundreds of branches. This is selling services.
Sell "Convenience Packs" or "Premium Versions": Many people, even with the recipe, are too lazy to source ingredients or cook it themselves; they find it troublesome. At this point, you can launch an "Official Special Blend Sauce Pack," ready to use, with an authentic taste. Or, you could introduce a "Luxury Sauce" version, containing more precious ingredients like truffles or caviar, which is not open source and requires payment. This is "open core, paid value-added features." Many software companies operate this way: a free basic version, and more powerful enterprise or premium versions that cost money.
Build an Ecosystem, Profit from Peripherals: When the whole world is using your sauce recipe, you effectively become the standard-setter. You can offer cooking classes, sell branded woks and plates with your logo, or even collaborate with other food companies. It's like the Android system, which is open source, but Google makes a fortune through its app store, advertising, and other services built on top of it.

So, you see, open source isn't just about giving away a product. Its core logic is:

Through freeness and openness, quickly capture the market, build trust, unite people, and transform the "product" itself into a "connector" and a "standard." Then, through this connection point, profit by selling high-value services or products.

It's a "long game" strategy, a wisdom of casting a long line to catch a big fish. First, you expand the pond (market), invite everyone to play, and eventually, as the owner of the pond, you'll find plenty of opportunities to make money.