On Wednesday, November 6, 2002, at 08:18 AM, Jay Blanchard wrote:
[snip]The problem is if Pillar Software releases BBuilder as open source, I'm allowed to purchase a single copy then resell it as many times as I want (giving them full credit of course, in a text file). So what's Pillar to do, sell it for enough to recoup this exponential loss? No way, they're to keep it closed source.
You show Pillar Software how to make money by giving away BBuilder and
we will consider it.
[/snip]
Tony,
I never said anything concerning Pillar, nor would I suggest that you give
it away. What I was saying is that FREE is different than OPEN SOURCE. You
can still 'sell' (license) your software and make it Open Source with
distribution and modification rules. If anyone breaks the rules you can
hammer them in court. Meanwhile you may get developers who will contribute
to your software for no charge other than perhaps a discount on the next
release of the software.
Open Source doesn't work unless your software is like your business card (read: you're a services company, ex: Zope), you don't have to make a living off your work, or somehow you're in the 1% of open source projects who's name has become a trusted brand (Linux, MySQL) and you sell the trademark. In any of these cases, it's not the open sourced software itself that's paying your bills, it's the stuff you structure around it. At the point when this is realized, it's hard to justify monetarily giving the software as much focus and effort as the other aspects of the company, because you're not seeing any direct ROI on it.
That's why a happy medium where both parties can win is when they open the source (technically), but restrict the redistribution rights. You don't want to wait for features, add them yourself? You want to resell our software, become a reseller and keep paying us for our hard work. That's a win-win scenario in my eyes.
If you do not wish to make your software Open Source that is your choice.
Many consumers are tired and fed up with requesting software features to
closed source vendors whose development cycle is too long.
Cheers,
Lux
Jay-- http://cms-list.org/ trim your replies for good karma.
-- John Luxford Simian Systems _______________________ phone : 204.946.5955 email : [EMAIL PROTECTED] web : www.simian.ca _______________________ web content management application development consulting and training -- http://cms-list.org/ trim your replies for good karma.
