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Open Source, free or not free?
,----[ Quote ]
| To be or not to be, free. That is the
| question. Well the answer is not 42. Or
| maybe it is. Forty two is the answer to life
| according to Arthur Dent yet he didn't know
| the question. The question is probably too
| big for us to understand or even ask so I
| guess we will never know. Perhaps one day at
| the restaurant doing some pasta equations
| while watching the end of the universe we
| will know but until then.....
|
| [...]
|
| The meaning of the word free in the Open
| Source context is freedom (who doesn't have
| Mel Gibson shouting that in their heads
| right now :). What freedom though? Freedom
| to devalue the hard work of companies and
| programmers trying to make a simple living?
| No! Open Source freedom is freedom of
| knowledge. Freedom to understand and freedom
| to learn. Advocates of Open Source are free
| to freely share their knowledge and freely
| learn from others.
`----
http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/locutus/open-source-free-or-not-free-39747
Afraid of open core lock-in? The alternative could be worse
http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source/afraid-open-core-lock-in-the-alternative-could-be-worse-009
Open Core Debate: Avoiding the Law of Unintended Consequences
,----[ Quote ]
| In the interest of transparency, I work with
| over twenty open source companies, most of
| who were funded by venture capitalists and
| the vast majority of which use the âopen
| coreâ model. These companies have provided
| significant value to end users through the
| software licensed under open source
| licenses. Simon states: âBut to use the
| package effectively in production, a
| business probably wonât find the functions
| of the core package sufficient, even in the
| (usual) case of the core package being
| highly capable.â This statement is simply
| incorrect. I have sat through many Board
| meetings and, in fact, the conversion rate
| from âopen sourceâ to âcommercialâ licenses
| is generally less than 10% for these
| companies. Thus, more than nine out of ten
| end users find the functionality of the open
| source version satisfactory.
|
| Simon says that open core does not provide
| software freedom for âend usersâ. Yet,
| nothing prevents the end users of the open
| source version to modify it and distribute
| it or otherwise exercise the rights under
| the license. In fact, Compiere demonstrates
| the fallacy of this position because it
| created two different forks. Simon complains
| about the lack of access to the âcommercial
| extensionsâ of open core programs.
`----
http://lawandlifesiliconvalley.com/blog/?p=485
Open core is not a crime
,----[ Quote ]
| Simon Phipps has articulated why this
| strategy does not meet the approval of
| software freedom advocates, but in doing so,
| in my opinion, mischaracterises the
| relationship between open core vendors and
| open source.
`----
http://blogs.the451group.com/opensource/2010/07/02/open-core-is-not-a-crime/
Open Core and OSI
,----[ Quote ]
| Is Mark suggesting that OSI intended to
| facilitate less freedom for the code and end
| users than the GPL offers, that this was an
| OSI goal, that "software freedom for the
| software user" isn't and never was an OSI
| goal? Does freedom mean only the right to
| fork the code? If so, I'd like OSI to say so
| clearly and on the record. If so, it might
| provide insight into why OSI is struggling
| and provide indisputable proof that they
| were foundationally wrong. I hope they'll
| weigh in on this debate and plant their
| flag, because if that is what OSI stands
| for, maybe it's time to let them float out
| into outer space without the community, thus
| making it clear there really is no
| connection between the real FOSS community
| and OSI any more.
|
| If that is not what OSI stands for, I'd like
| to hear them say so. I hope it isn't. But
| the community wants to know where they
| stand, and for what.
|
| For myself, I believe that OSI, in order to
| be relevant, needs to reinvent itself and
| restructure to represent the entire
| community with its license list and its
| definition. Enough with the old divisions
| and the debates. The community needs to face
| the world more unitedly now, as a broad
| spectrum, including those who had the
| foresight to realize that VC guys and
| proprietary types would be coming along
| someday and would try to close down the
| freedom of the code and the freedoms of
| those using it just to make a buck.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20100704191126134
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