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Minimizing development through Open Source involvement?

Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2004 3:40 am
by myleow
Here is a question that has been through my mind a couple of times. Are you able to leverage the power of Open Source development (e.g. SourceForge) and decrease the development cycle of your current project?

One example would be how Sun used Open Office and got Star Office out of it, but Open Office ended up to be the same if not better. Another would be Sync4j which is sponsored by a company and use of the program commercially would require a license.

I was wondering if it is possible to start a section of your project on SourceForge or whatever Open Source development community, have a bunch of volunteer devote their time to it and have it done faster and cheaper than what normally would cost.

Just a thought since i can surely see this backfire because most Open Source Projects actually slows development. Partly due to the lack of real commitment (people do it on their spare time).

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==Here is something else==
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If a subscription fee based service is a combination of a bunch of Open Source software, would that company require to acquire a license? I only know that you need to pay about US$100 for each MySQL included into your commercial software sold. If it is a service, you only need 1 copy and you aren't really selling it as to renting it.

Just something before bed.

Regards
Mian

Re: Minimizing development through Open Source involvement?

Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2004 4:05 pm
by Roja
myleow wrote:Here is a question that has been through my mind a couple of times. Are you able to leverage the power of Open Source development (e.g. SourceForge) and decrease the development cycle of your current project?
I do on a regular basis, and have done so for over two years.
myleow wrote: One example would be how Sun used Open Office and got Star Office out of it, but Open Office ended up to be the same if not better.
Thats not entirely accurate. Sun opensourced much of Star Office, which became Open Office. Then after much development had occured on the free underlying version (OOo), they added value-adds to Star Office. Star Office has some substantial value-adds over Open-Office, and to say OOo is the "same if not better" is misleading.

However, the development cycle between releases is dramatically better for Sun - they get free development time from the public.
myleow wrote: I was wondering if it is possible to start a section of your project on SourceForge or whatever Open Source development community, have a bunch of volunteer devote their time to it and have it done faster and cheaper than what normally would cost.
The phrase "A section of your project" might give away a bit - it sounds like you want the benefits of opensource, but want to keep your source closed. While companies like Sun do make money doing so, and can be profitable, they also face competition from their opensource version. While OOo isn't quite the same, it is full-featured enough for a decent number of users.
myleow wrote: Just a thought since i can surely see this backfire because most Open Source Projects actually slows development. Partly due to the lack of real commitment (people do it on their spare time).
Totally incorrect assumption. Lets look at it this way. Assume a perfect development environment where everyone can contribute equally and at the right time. Then for the closed source version the equation is simple:

(Your resources) / time = output rate.

However, by adding open source development, it becomes:

(Your resources + Their resources) / time = output rate.

No matter how you do the math, the opensource development version > yours alone. There are some catches - communications is a critical issue. Coordination is challenging. Resources have to be FLEXIBLE (since people do things on a volunteer basis). However, none of those change the simple equation - (you + them) > you.
myleow wrote: If a subscription fee based service is a combination of a bunch of Open Source software, would that company require to acquire a license? I only know that you need to pay about US$100 for each MySQL included into your commercial software sold. If it is a service, you only need 1 copy and you aren't really selling it as to renting it.
Licensing questions are best asked to the company with the license agreement. In the case of MySQL, you really should ask them, because your statement above does NOT match up with my experience with them at all.

Usually, if software is open-source, and you use it under the correct terms of the license, you dont have to pay a fee for it - you wont get support, mind you, but you are allowed to run it.

In the case of MySQL, you are specifically bringing up bundling mysql with other programs - that takes it squarely OUT of the opensource license, and into the commercial license. (At least, thats my take on it, based on their numerous postings about it on various message threads on newsgroups).

You are trying to take specific examples, to draw general conclusions, while making assumptions along the way that are generally inaccurate. :)

Try to just ASK your question next time. If you leave it an open-ended question, you might like the variety of answers you get better.